Two senators from opposite sides of the political spectrum jointly introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at reforming Alaska’s expensive, overburdened “revolving door” of a correctional system.
Modeled on an approach that found success reducing prison overcrowding in Texas, Senate Bill 91 would create more ways for Alaskans to serve sentences for nonviolent crimes outside cells.
“Other states have had success getting people out of expensive hard-bed prisons and saving those for rapists and murderers,” said Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage. He and Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole, are the bill’s co-sponsors.
The problem, they say, is that despite the construction of a $250 million prison in 2012, Alaska prisons are bursting at the seams — running at 101 percent of capacity as of January, according to a task force report.
If Alaska doesn’t halt the growth in its prisoner population, it will need to build another prison or resume the practice of sending inmates to jails in the Lower 48 to serve their sentences.
Via adn.com
image credit APEonline
