FOR nearly 20 years, Louisiana has held an unwanted title: the top state incarcerator in the country that imprisons a greater share of its citizens than any other. The competition often hasn’t even been particularly close, with Louisiana keeping well over 800 residents out of every 100,000 behind bars—nearly 1% of its people. In most recent years, no other state has topped 700.
But Louisiana will soon relinquish this crown. Sometime in the next year or so, experts expect the title to pass to Oklahoma, where in recent years the incarceration rate has skyrocketed (and which, not coincidentally, locks up a greater share of women than any other state).
Both states recently concluded legislative sessions where criminal justice reforms aimed at reducing mass incarceration were near the top of the agenda. But Oklahoma’s effort mostly failed, while Louisiana’s was largely successful.
The package of 10 new laws passed in the state is expected to cut the inmate rolls by about a tenth over the next decade, according to...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2uORHep
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