"Justice Reinvestment" in Texas

Thanks to Grits for Breakfast, I see that the smart folks are starting to come up with a smarter slogans for smarter sentencing reforms: "Justice Reinvestment."  Here's more information (with cool links) from this page at the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments:

On Tuesday, January 30, 2007, the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee and the House Committee on Corrections held a joint hearing to review correctional policies in the state. At the invitation of Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston), Chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and Representative Jerry Madden (R-Plano), Chairman of the House Corrections Committee, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, along with its senior research consultant Dr. Tony Fabelo, presented a report to the Committee entitled "Justice Reinvestment: A Framework to Improve Effectiveness of Justice Policies in Texas." This report outlined two justice reinvestment scenarios: provide more tools to the Parole Board to enhance the use of parole and increase the availability of treatment services. According to the report, state policymakers could avert spending $377 million for construction of prisons for 5,000 more inmates.

If anyone in the sentencing reform "ad biz" is listening, let me also suggest an add-on slogan.  How about: "Justice Reinvestment: Less Cost and Less Crime."

Some recent related posts:

• Important new Vera report on "Reconsidering Incarceration"
• Great (short) sentencing report from Texas
• Important California report on sentencing reform