Effective Stateline coverage of new Pew report

In addition to all the effective local media coverage (noted here and here) generated by Pew Center's big report titled "One in 31: The Long Reach of America Corrections," the folks at Stateline.org have this effective article on the report and on related state developments.  Here is a snippet on recent state reform efforts from the Stateline piece:

The Democratic governors of at least four states — Kentucky, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin — recently have sought to save tens of millions of dollars by reducing the amount of time some prisoners spend behind bars.

Other states have negotiated bipartisan agreements focused on preventing recidivism, a major cause of crowded prisons and rising costs.  According to federal statistics, more than half of those released from prison are back behind bars within three years.

The Pew study said Arizona, Kansas and Texas are states “already well under way” to improving their supervision of community-based offenders and working to reduce recidivism.  A new Arizona program, for instance, allows those on probation to trim their sentences by 20 days for each month they meet court-ordered conditions.

In addition, Stateline has this interesting related piece, titled "Govs’ Q & A: Rethinking prison time," that reports on comments about prison reforms from Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.