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| Many inmates may have security levels reduced |
| By Indystar.com |
| Published: 07/11/2005 |
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Indiana plans to move thousands of prison inmates from high-security classifications to minimum security over the next year, an effort to ease their transition to life outside prison. Nationwide, about 30 percent of inmates are classified as minimum security, compared with 10 percent in Indiana. The state has about 4,200 maximum-security prisoners, about 15,600 in medium security and about 2,200 in minimum security. Only Arkansas, North Dakota and South Carolina have fewer inmates in minimum-security settings, according to the 2002 Corrections Yearbook, published by the private Criminal Justice Institute. Indiana prison officials have developed a new classification system they hope will encourage inmates to earn their way into less restrictive settings, which are cheaper and require less staffing. Michael Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, said other states are looking for ways to cut costs and reduce recidivism. "As states get into tight fiscal situations, they're coming to the conclusion that they've got to do something," Jacobson said. "One of the reasons there's so much focus around re-entry is that 50 percent of prisoners come back to prison." |
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