the crime report

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How did New York State manage to cut its prison population while reducing crime? Send many fewer drug offenders to prison and have many more minor offenders serving shorter sentences, experts told a “smart justice” symposium yesterday near Washington, D.C. The session was sponsored by the CNA consulting firm in Alexandria, Va., which is working with the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance on a “smart policing” initiative. (more…)

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca released 343 nonviolent offenders from the county jail system this week, well before they had served their full sentences, says the Christian Science Monitor. The sheriff says budget cuts have forced changes to a longtime policy requiring inmates to serve at least 80 percent of their time before release. Now, those jailed for crimes such as check kiting, petty theft, and drunk driving will serve just 50 percent of their sentences. (more…)

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Days after a Texas prison trusty snuck into a Walmart to buy cigarettes, contraband-sniffing dogs outside a prison unit pinpointed a cache of tobacco, 19 cell phones, and 18 phone chargers hidden behind a prison food barn. Both cases came on the heels of the discovery of 200 packages of forbidden tobacco and 4 gallons of booze stashed outside the fences of another prison, says the Houston Chronicle. To Texas Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate’s criminal justice committee, the new contraband cases show that recent security improvements at state lockups haven’t made prisons secure enough. (more…)

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Some Los Angeles County jail inmates are benefiting from the sour economy, says the Los Angeles Times. When times are flush, the Sheriff’s Department has the money to keep jails open and staffed, and most sentenced inmates serve most of their time behind bars. When tax revenues shrink, the department has repeatedly looked to its jail operations to make cuts, freeing thousands of inmates who’ve served only a small fraction of their sentences. Faced with fresh budget woes, Sheriff Lee Baca announced this week that he has stepped up the early release of inmates. (more…)

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