"Stop punishing taxpayers for criminals' actions"
The State, South Carolina
Op-Ed
February 7, 2010
Read an opinion piece in South Carolina's newspaper, The State, about the state's Sentencing Reform Commission report:
OVER THE PAST quarter century, South Carolina's prison population has skyrocketed, from 9,000 to 25,000 inmates, and the cost to taxpayers has gone up even faster - from $64 million to $394 million.
Worse is how nonsensical much of this expensive warehousing is: Forty-nine percent of inmates are in prison for non-violent crimes. More than four in 10 committed crimes so minor that the sentences are less than 18 months. One in six people we're housing, feeding and providing with medical care are in for "non-criminal (technical) violations" of parole.
