Connecticut
Step 2: Provide policymakers with options to generate savings and increase public safety
In January 2003, CSG expert consultants presented the “Building Bridges: From Conviction to Employment” report to state policymakers. The report presented several cost-saving strategies that could potentially yield $48.9 million in averted costs.
CSG expert consultants identified several opportunities to reduce the prison population while increasing public safety.
- An analysis of community corrections data revealed a relatively small parole population.
- Only 30 percent of the prison population was charged or convicted with a violent crime.
- Nearly 25 percent of prison beds on any given day were occupied by probation violators.
The report presented six policy options that could enable the state to reverse the growth of the state’s prison population.
- The policy options included requiring persons sentenced to at least two years to serve no more than 85 percent of their sentence, reducing the length of stay for people returned to prison for a technical violation, and reducing the number of technical violations admissions by 25 percent by seeking to increase compliance among probationers and parolees.
- Implementing these policy options was projected to reduce the prison population (from 2003 to 2006) by as many as 2,000.