NY: Alternatives to Incarceration
/Cash-strapped states like New York are struggling to reduce inmate populations so that they can close expensive prisons. Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to mothball two more correctional facilities downstate this year.
Reducing the number of people behind bars means experimenting with diversion programs for non-violent drug offenders: States are offering counseling programs, rehabilitation and therapy, and opening alternative, "drug courts." The goal is to battle drug addiction without incarceration.
Marc Mauer, the executive director of The Sentencing Project, says drug courts are one tool that states are trying to reduce the pressure and cost mass incarceration. He says trying treatment before incarceration just makes sense.
In a three-part series of Prison Time Media Project, Natasha Haverty traces one man through a system that is moving away from mass incarceration. Listen here.
