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| Lawmakers consider the cost of incarceration |
| By wcax.com - Jennifer Reading |
| Published: 04/02/2013 |
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MONTPELIER, Vt. - "Incarceration is the most expensive thing that we do in the Department of Corrections," said Vt. Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito. Locking up one inmate in Vermont comes with a $50,000 a year price tag. That bill is chopped in half if the offender is shipped out-of-state. Still, Vermont spent $139 million on its incarcerated population last year -- an 80-percent jump from just a decade ago. "The cost of corrections in the State of Vermont is completely unsustainable," said Sen. Tim Ashe (D-Chittenden County). Ashe is working on a fix. He introduced a bill that would require Vermont judges to consider the cost of the sentences they impose. It passed the Senate in February. "What we're saying is on those low level crimes where people have made some bad decisions, but they haven't made long term, fundamental fatal decisions that we want to best turn their lives around and do it in a way that's affordable to the State of Vermont. And throwing people in jail is not that solution," he said. Ashe said the proposed legislation would require corrections to provide judges with a cost comparison for sentencing non-violent criminals. The idea would be to weigh the cost of incarceration against less pricey alternatives. A sample menu of options would show a judge that, right now, community diversion costs less than $1 a day; electronic monitoring $14 a day; work crew $48a day; transitional housing $58 a day; residential treatment $98 dollars a day. Prison tops the scale at $156 per day. Read More. |
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