Most States Reconsidering Tough-On-Crime Measures

Many U.S. states have cut their corrections budgets and eschewed mandatory minimums due to exorbitant costs and mixed results.

At this point, we're pretty certain that no amount of evidence could ever convince Stephen Harper and the Conservative government that the omnibus crime bill will just lead to higher costs and more prisoners but certainly not safer streets. But for the sake of due diligence, a study released by an American thinktank, The National Governors’ Association Centre for Best Practices, points out that more than 40 of the union's 50 states are slashing their corrections budgets and moving away from mandatory minimum sentences, truth-in-sentencing provisions, and three-strike laws, all of which have been proven to be costly and far from effective. Via iPolitics:

The report points to a “significant body of research” that shows which sentencing and corrections practices work and which ones don’t. Evidence-based practices lead to an average decrease in crime of 10-20 per cent, while programs that aren’t evidence-based see no decrease or even slight increase in crime rates.

The NGA report finds a growing number of states are adopting sentencing reforms that move non-violent offenders out of the correctional system more quickly, reserving prison space for those who pose a greater threat to public safety. They are also amending criminal codes to find alternatives to incarceration, downgrade offences, repeal or amend mandatory sentencing laws and adopt credit systems to speed-up the release of lower-risk offenders.

Perhaps MPs sitting on the House of Commons' justice committee will take some of the report's lessons to heart as they begin going through each and every one of the omnibus bill's clauses this week. If the vast, vast majority of American states (and not just your liberal coastal states, either) have decided that the same kind of tough-on-crime measures about to be implemented here have clearly failed at great expense to state coffers, then maybe a couple Tories will grow spines and seriously question whether their bosses' gut feelings are really worth supporting.