Community Resists Prison closing

With looming budget deficits, states are seeking ways to cut expenses. Since in 

some states corrections takes a larger bite of the budget than higher education 

does, corrections is an area of budget cutting.

Community corrections is one possibility with the prisons only being used 

to house offenders who commit violent crimes. But there is anger from victims 

who do not see justice' being done. A large percentage of inmates, especially 

women, are incarcerated because of drug offenses.  The "War on Drugs" 

had the unintended consequence of an exploding inmate population. 

Thus many believethat we need to revisit the sentencing guidelines, 

especially in regard to drug offenses.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal describes the effect this would have

on one community.

For other communities where the prison is the main employer, the closing 

of a prison would be disasterous, especially in these bad economic times. 

The article has concentrated on minimum security facilities that have work 

release programs. For maximum and other high security prisons, the 

town's economic base would disappear along with the prison.

It does not appear as if there is a solution that would work for the 

communities involved and the state budgets as well.