Terrible decision to cut services

[GaReform]

There was a very interesting & worrisome article in the Times Picayune paper. It was concerning the decision to change the 2 private prisons to jails in an effort to save money for the state. That means important services like medical & educational will no longer be available. Definitely worth reading & taking action on if you have a loved one in the system. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...son_costs.html

If we don't take action to make a change then nothing will ever get better. Let your opinion be heard & make Gov Edwards keep his word to do something for criminal justice reform.

We treat animals in the animal shelter better than people in our prisons & jails. How can people ever be expected to rejoin the world & be a success if all they do is stay locked up with no chance to learn a different way to exist?

[patchouli]

Cut all the programs, remove medical/mental services...and there's unrest....ya think! How can they do this? I'm terribly disturbed by this article on so many levels. Rather than turn private prisons into over-sized jails with no services/programs, how about passing some relief to the system as a whole Mandatory Release Supervision (parole) when an inmate is 6 moths from serve-out; how about revamping sentencing laws/sentences, shortening the % of time to serve before parole eligibility and actually granting parole

This line I have to take issue with:
Louisiana and California are the only states that put their inmates in local jails.
No, Kentucky does it too. Used to be Class D's with less than a year served their time in a county facility. Then it was upped to 5 years. Then DOC added Class C's to the list. More and more longer term inmates are serving in county facilities with NO programs, NO (or very limited) medical/mental services, no rec or yard time, no contact visits / 30 minutes or less behind the glass visits It ought to be illegal to keep state inmates in county facilities. I'll get off my soapbox now