Friday, August 3, 2012

State's prison population declines

The surest sign of Florida’s plummeting crime rate: For the first time in 28 years, the Sunshine State will have a smaller prison population than it did in the previous year. The lower number of prisoners and the drop in the crime rate are having a ripple effect throughout the criminal justice system that should ultimately curb rising costs in the $2 billion-a-year prison system.

Some of that was reflected in the new state budget, which Gov. Rick Scott said contained about $100 million in “savings,” with $75 million related to closing of operations no longer needed because of less crime and fewer prisoners. Part of that money will be redirected into prevention and rehabilitation programs.

Florida’s prison population is now projected to dip below 100,000 by this fall and stay there for the next five years, according to a new criminal justice estimate. The numbers stood at 100,527 inmates on June 30, compared with 102,319 inmates at the end of June 2011, Florida Department of Corrections data shows.

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