News release from Governor Dan Malloy:
Today, the Office of Governor Dannel P. Malloy released May 16, 2016 numbers for those accused of low-risk, misdemeanor crimes who are currently in jail awaiting trial. Often, many of those pre-trial detainees are in prison because they cannot come up with even a few hundred dollars in bail.
With each day spent in jail awaiting a court date, their ability to succeed outside of the criminal justice system declines, the likelihood they will commit a crime in the future increases, and the cost to the state rises. The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates that the state spends $168 per day to incarcerate an individual inmate, and studies have shown that compared to low-risk defendants held for no more than 24 hours, those held for eight to 14 days were 56 percent more likely to be rearrested before trial and 51 percent more likely to recidivate after sentence completion.Today–May 16, 2016–these statistics include:
Current pre-trial prisoners with a controlling offense that is a misdemeanor: 433
Current pre-trial prisoners who have charges where the underlying offense could be a misdemeanor: 631
Estimated number of low-risk inmates accused of misdemeanors who cannot make bail and are in jail pretrial today: 346
Estimated cost to the state to jail all low-risk, misdemeanor pretrial inmates today: $58,128
Total cost to the state that would be saved with Second Chance implementation since May 16: $58,128Governor Malloy’s Second Chance 2.0 initiative will implement a smarter approach to bail bonds by prohibiting a judge from setting money bail for anyone charged with only a misdemeanor, except where the judge determines that the accused poses an immediate threat to the health or wellbeing of another person, or the accused is charged with failure to appear.
The Governor’s Second Chance 2.0 initiative is in line with national trends, led by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, governors, policy experts and pundits nationwide who know that our historic commitment to permanent punishment and mass incarceration has failed our country. If we are to truly be about corrections, and if we are to truly work towards ensuring that those housed in our prisons never return, then we need to be a Second Chance society that invests in permanent improvement and reformation instead of permanent punishment.
A day at a time? A budget year at a time? Getting a high school degree in four years to qualify for further education? Securing an opportunity and funding for higher education of four or more years to earn an income that sustains a family?
Sometimes there are short-term targets and other times they are steps to longer-term goals. Keeping the eye on the distant target is critical to connecting enough successes together and contribute to the community. In the meantime life happens. How do we use community resources efficiently and effectively? What are the risks of changing? Of doing nothing? Of tweaking our plan with data, not anecdotes? Results based accountability? Transparent opportunity? Chances available to all who will pay attention? Time will tell.
*** Court fines, Drugs, Anger, DWI, Family counseling/classes in general, as well as one-on-one counselor management meetings, Job fairs, along with Community Service can all be helpful and cheaper in the long run towards helping individuals not go to jail and hopefully turn their lives around, no ?*** SECOND CHANCE ***