A new study offers recommendations for reducing prison populations without jeopardizing public safety.
“Research shows that the most cost-effective ways to increase public safety, reduce prison populations, and save money are to invest in proven community-based programs that positively impact youth,” according to the report by the Justice Policy Institute.
“Evidence-based programs for youth have shown to produce up to $13 in benefits for one dollar spent in terms of improved public safety,” according to the report titled, Behind the Times: President Obama’s FY2013 budget focuses on prison and policing when prison populations have fallen for the first time in 40 years.
Federal spending on programs geared toward improving the lives of juveniles will decrease by $18-$245 million. “This reduction for juvenile programs can result in more youth being held in juvenile facilities and poor conditions,” the report claims.
The federal prison system will cost taxpayers nearly $7 billion this year. One billion will pay private prisons contacts. Paying police will cost $4 billion. “This spending pattern will most likely add incarceration costs, and will outweigh any increased federal revenue for local law enforcement with marginal public safety benefits,” the report states.
The research found local governments that spent money on policing increased their prison populations “without necessarily improving public safety.”
President Obama has expressed concerns about the nation’s incarceration rate; however, the latest budget on federal prisons “seems to be at odds with that trend,” the report states. “The Bureau of Prisons has about 226,000 people, and proposals are to reactivate facilities in Mississippi and West Virginia. The budget also included an additional $314 million to acquire 1,000 private contract beds.”
The federal government should invest in programs that have positive and long-lasting effects on individuals and communities, such as “community-based substance and mental health treatment, evidence-based prevention programs for youth, employment, job skills and education in under-served communities, and lastly, diversion programs that will keep citizens from entering the corrections system,” the report concludes.
