Will the Economy lead to Decriminalization of Some Offenses

The New York Times reports that prosecutors across the nation are facing budget cuts and choosing not to prosecute certain offenses because of the economics of a trial. 

Questions come to mind immediately: 

Will Broken Windows Theory be proven when quality of life offenses 

no longer lead to arrests and sentencing?

Will decriminalization of some drug offenses result?

Will the fear of crime increase?

Cities across the country are receiving new funds to hire more police. 

More police logically mean more arrests. Prosecutor says they 

will limit prosecutions. 

What will happen to police morale and effectiveness when the 

hard work of investigation is ignored by the office of the prosecutor?

Will this lead to increased negative feelings towards the criminal

 justice system?

What impact will this have on the minority communities in our country?

As the economy slides and tax receipts are lower, cities, counties, and states

must find ways to cut their expenses. We have been spending huge amounts on

prison building in recent years. Citizens are unwilling to see programs that

impact education and children chopped while the corrections

budget continues to swallow a large share of the  available money.

We, as a society, need to reconsider alternatives to prison for 

low-risk offenders. Restorative justice, alternative courts like 

juvenile and drug court, rehabilitation programs in the community, 

and various forms of community service have all

shown good results for first-time, non-violent, low-level offenders. 

We will need to provide more funding to the probation and parole 

agencies, but the cost of prosecuting and then incarcerating 

this group of offenders is huge in comparison and increases 

the recidivism rate since prisons provide an

education on how to do a better job of being a criminal.

It is time that we look at how the Scandanavians handle offenders; 

they have a very low incarceration rate and focus on rehabilitation. 

Their crime rate is also lower than ours.

A huge percentage of female offenders are serving time 

for non-violent drug  offenses. Most of them are mothers 

and society must underwrite the cost of providing for

 these children who will enter adulthood with emotional 

scars caused by a mother in prison. 

Does this really make sense?