http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/10233361.htm
Mark Scolford
"Last month, Pennsylvania quietly joined a growing number of states taking a step back from the stiffer sentencing policies of the 1990s. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a bill that would get nonviolent drug and alcohol offenders out of prison more quickly and into treatment programs, and on Friday, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell signed it.
The policy change is expected to save the state more than $20 million a year and reduce pressure on a prison system now housing nearly 41,000 convicts, up from 28,302 in 1994. Corrections officials say treatment has also been shown to reduce the chance the inmates will end up back in prison."
