To reduce the number of people locked up in local jails around the U.S., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced it plans to give $75 million to local jail officials working on ways to remove nonviolent offenders, people too poor to afford bail and the mentally ill from behind bars.
“For too long America has incarcerated too many people unnecessarily, spending too much money without improving public safety,” Julia Stasch, president of the Chicago-based foundation, said in a statement Wednesday.
Nearly 12 million people annually pass through the more than 3,000 county lockups and city jails across the country, with close to 731,000 people locked up on any given day, according to a new report on jails also released Wednesday by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice.
[For more of this story go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/...0f3918d4b_story.html]
Comments (0)