SOME STATES TRIM PRISON SPENDING

Officials in some states are trying to cut their swollen prison costs
through early releases and work programs for eligible nonviolent offenders.

A decision this week by the U.S. Supreme Court gave California two
years to reduce prison overcrowding, highlighting states' struggles to
bring down prison populations and expenses.

Total state spending on corrections has quadrupled during the past two
decades to $52 billion a year, making it the second-fastest-growing
area of state budgets after Medicaid spending, according to an April
study by the Pew Center on the States.

States are trying to reverse that trend. Forty states cut spending on
their corrections programs in 2009 and 2010, according to the National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices. This year, many
states have proposed or have passed additional legislation to curb
costs through programs intended to reduce repeat offending or by
changing the penalties for nonviolent crimes.

In Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, earlier this month signed
into law a bill that allows the corrections department to release
nonviolent offenders who have been sentenced to fewer than six months
in prison, and place them under home supervision and rehabilitation
programs.

"We underestimate the number of nonviolent offenders we have in our
systems throughout the country. We're basically treating drug- and
alcohol-related addictions as a crime, not as a disease," he said.

Nonviolent offenders, he said, include those who have bounced checks
or stolen goods from a store.

Annual corrections costs in Vermont have more than doubled in the past
decade to $140 million in fiscal year 2011, Mr. Shumlin said. "I've
got to go where the money is, and it's prisons," he said.

In Alabama, where prisons are operating at 190% of capacity, the state
can't afford to build new prisons, said state Finance Director David
Perry. The state spends around $15,000 each year to house an inmate,
he said.

Mr. Perry said that a work-release program, where an offender can be
required to check in and out of a facility, costs about one-third or
less. Bills pending before the Alabama legislature seek to place some
nonviolent inmates in such rehabilitation programs.

Some see dangers in states' efforts to reduce overcrowding. A report
published Wednesday by the California prison system's independent
inspector general said that the state improperly freed more than 450
criminals with a "high risk for violence" last year as part of a
parole program to reduce overcrowding and costs.

In a rebuttal letter, the California corrections department's deputy
chief of staff said the parole program has "led to significant
improvements in public safety as well as cost savings for California's
prison system," and took issue with the inspector general's evidence.

Government officials who support rehabilitation programs for
nonviolent crimes often face accusations that they aren't tough on
crime, leading some to shy away from overhaul efforts.

Mr. Shumlin, the Vermont governor, said he encountered such charges
during his campaign last year.

Not all states need to combat overcrowding. North Dakota's prison
system is at 100% capacity, far lower than in some states. Leann
Bertsch, director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,
attributes that to the agency's longstanding focus on reducing repeat
offenses through an emphasis on educational and vocational training
during incarceration.

"Keeping people locked up is expensive," Ms. Bertsch said.