{"id":1121,"date":"2012-02-10T08:29:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/save-money-by-streamlining-the-state-penal-code.html"},"modified":"2012-02-10T08:29:22","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:29:22","slug":"save-money-by-streamlining-the-state-penal-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/save-money-by-streamlining-the-state-penal-code.html","title":{"rendered":"Save money by streamlining the state penal code"},"content":{"rendered":"Even the Bainbridge and Decatur County Post-Searchlight publishes news about their very own\nstate legislator explaining one of the biggest reasont why prisons are\na bad bet for a local economy:\nbecause we can’t afford to lock up so many people anymore.\n

\nBrennan Leathers wrote 6 January 2012,\n\nGeorgia legislature going back to work<\/a>\nState Senator John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee):\n

\n“We’re still struggling to find revenue to pay for operation\n\n<\/a>\nof the state government and its services,” Bulloch said.\n“We’re going to have to fill holes that we filled during\nworse\neconomic times using federal stimulus money and other temporary\nmoney.”\n

\nBulloch said he also understands Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has\ninstructed Georgia’s department heads to include 2-percent cuts in\ntheir budget requests for this year.\n

\nOne way in which legislators might opt to save money is by\nstreamlining its criminal penal code. According to Bulloch, Georgia\nhas a very high number of people serving supervised probation or\nparole.\n

\n“A lot of those people who are in prison or under close\nsupervision by state officers are serving sentences for non-violent\noffenses or minor felonies,” Bulloch said. “We may look\nat alternative means for dealing with them, such as creating drug\ncourts or setting up drug-testing centers that would monitor drug\noffenders without imprisoning them.”\n<\/blockquote>\nWhich would mean fewer people in prison.\nWhich would mean no need for new prisons.\nAnd some existing prisons might close.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nDo we want a private prison in Lowndes County so more prisoners\ncan compete with local workers here, too?\nIf you don’t think so, remember\n\nCCA says community opposition<\/a>\ncan impede private prison site selection.<\/a>\nHere’s a\n\npetition urging the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authorithy\nto stop the CCA private prison.<\/a>\nSpend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even the Bainbridge and Decatur County Post-Searchlight publishes news about their very own state legislator explaining one of the biggest reasont why prisons are a bad bet for a local economy: because we can’t afford to lock up so many people anymore. Brennan Leathers wrote 6 January 2012, Georgia legislature going back to work State […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,1113,14,15,8,72,20,21,22],"tags":[1115,8817,1114,8704,8705,8701,8730,3090,753,7,75,1297,2712,60,6,8749],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-cca","category-economy","category-education","category-georgia","category-incarceration","category-law","category-planning","category-politics","tag-bainbridge","tag-cca","tag-decatur-county","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-incarceration","tag-john-bulloch","tag-legislature","tag-lowndes-county","tag-prison","tag-private-prison","tag-rehabilitation","tag-tax","tag-valdosta","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-i5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}