Drug Cartels Thriving: Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed recently with the thousands of unaccompanied children streaming across the border, making it easier for Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs into the country. Corey Charlton of the Daily Mail reports that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot fears that Border Patrol resources have been stretched so thin that officers are unable to control narcotics smuggling and human trafficking. Abbot has asked for a $30 million funding increase from the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to strengthen border security.
Realignment not Working: California Governor Jerry Brown's prison Realignment plan, which went into effect nearly three years ago, has not saved tax dollars or solved the prison overcrowding problem according to Los Angeles Times reporter Paige St. John. She reports that since Brown took office in 2011, the state has spent nearly $2 billion a year more on incarceration and he has missed almost every benchmark set for the law. In early 2013 the Governor said, "the prison emergency is over in California." Not true, according to reports indicating state prisons and jails are still overcrowded, while thousands of criminals have been released from custody ahead of schedule, creating more problems for county probation departments. Law enforcement officials also cite Realignment as the cause for an 8% increase in property crime, after years of declines.
Florida Releasing Inmates Without Supervision: A study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts has revealed that Florida leads the nation in inmates being released from prison without mandatory supervision. Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel reports that the majority of inmates serve their entire sentence, resulting in 64% of inmates released in 2012 being sent away without any form of supervision. The study suggests that rather than keeping the inmates behind bars for their entire sentence, offenders should spend the last portion of their sentence on mandatory community supervision in order to prepare them for life outside of prison as well as save on the cost associated with keeping them in state custody.
Realignment not Working: California Governor Jerry Brown's prison Realignment plan, which went into effect nearly three years ago, has not saved tax dollars or solved the prison overcrowding problem according to Los Angeles Times reporter Paige St. John. She reports that since Brown took office in 2011, the state has spent nearly $2 billion a year more on incarceration and he has missed almost every benchmark set for the law. In early 2013 the Governor said, "the prison emergency is over in California." Not true, according to reports indicating state prisons and jails are still overcrowded, while thousands of criminals have been released from custody ahead of schedule, creating more problems for county probation departments. Law enforcement officials also cite Realignment as the cause for an 8% increase in property crime, after years of declines.
Florida Releasing Inmates Without Supervision: A study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts has revealed that Florida leads the nation in inmates being released from prison without mandatory supervision. Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel reports that the majority of inmates serve their entire sentence, resulting in 64% of inmates released in 2012 being sent away without any form of supervision. The study suggests that rather than keeping the inmates behind bars for their entire sentence, offenders should spend the last portion of their sentence on mandatory community supervision in order to prepare them for life outside of prison as well as save on the cost associated with keeping them in state custody.
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