The number of inmates in state custody has gone up by about 2,000 in the two years since the Louisiana Legislature passed a slew of laws lengthening prison stays. The growing population is one factor driving a projected increase in the corrections budget.
  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
    2·
    1 day ago

    First of all, we shouldn’t just talk about crime rates without acknowledging that the justice system that renders those verdicts is full of shit (arc

    Louisiana is a hotbed of wrongful conviction. It has the second highest rate of known wrongful convictions in the nation. New Orleans has the highest rate in the country among cities. There have been documented exonerations in 17 Louisiana parishes.

    Secondly, whatever you think about the people of Louisiana, there’s no real basis for saying they’ve changed a whole bunch recently, but what has are their laws -

    Two years after Louisiana overhauled its sentencing laws to lengthen prison stays, the corrections department says it needs another $82 million in state funds for its annual operating budget.