There is little discernible relationship between funding for community corrections and state prison budgets and population, according to a study released recently by the Vera Institute and the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project.
Vera researchers examined changes in correctional populations and expenditures from 2006 through 2010. Two-thirds of responding states reported increases in prison populations over the course of the four-year period, according to Vera, but prison populations began to decrease between 2009 and 2010 in half of responding states.
Seventeen states experienced a decline in prison populations between 2009 and 2010, but only six experienced an increase in community corrections populations. Community corrections expenditures declined in four of those six states.
Twenty-four states decreased spending on prison between 2009 and 2010, but only eight increased investments in their community corrections systems.
Read the report HERE.