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| Report: Reduced prison population saved S.C. $5.2 million |
| By thestate.com - Adam Beam |
| Published: 12/09/2013 |
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South Carolina’s prison population fell 2.8 percent in 2013 from the previous year, saving taxpayers $5.2 million, according to a new report. The savings are the result of sentencing reform, a 2010 law that strengthened penalties for violent crimes while offering alternative sentences for nonviolent offenses. Nonviolent inmates – who made up more than half of all S.C. prison inmates in 2002 – now account for 34 percent of the state’s prison population, according to a report from the state Sentencing Reform Oversight Committee. Lawmakers are happy the state is saving money. But they are arguing over how to spend those savings. Some say part of the money should go to the Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole Services, which has seen its probation population grow by 8 percent since sentencing reform went into effect in 2010. Others say the agency has misused the taxpayer money it already has, arguing it should be merged with the state Department of Corrections. The probation department wants lawmakers to give it $1.8 million of the $5.2 million in savings so it can hire more agents to better handle its growing caseload. But state Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, chairman of the Senate budget subcommittee that oversees the probation department’s budget, does not want to give the money to the agency. Read More. |
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