Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Employability Certificates and Budget Cuts

IA may be joining the small group of states which try to improve offender reentry chances with “certificates of employability” under a gov proposal this year. The state is also looking at “racial impact statements,” a concept that could have a big impact (sorry) on the behavior of a lot of agents in state crim just, pushed strongly by the Sentencing Project folks. IA’s one of the states with corrections sentencing issues on front burner this year and what happens there may affect a lot more down the line. Meanwhile, KY is another state with issues, a GIANT budget decrease on the horizon, sweeping prosecutors and PDs in as well. And yes, we’ve mentioned KY as one of the state’s with mega-prison pop probs looming, although, with fewer DAs and PDs, fewer prosecutions will be likely, making crime much more attractive even if penalties are higher. Here’s how one state paper accurately and succinctly put it:

Kentucky would keep packing felons into its prisons and jails, and the Corrections Department would suck money from the rest of the justice system -- including Kentucky State Police, prosecutors and public defenders -- in Gov. Steve Beshear's two-year budget proposal.

Interesting experiment.

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