Connecticut Makes Major Moves to Cut Prison Population and Violent Crime

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut praised yesterday’s passage of a groundbreaking criminal justice reform bill through the Judiciary Committee, which is a critical step to seeing this proposal come to fruition.

The bill would help keep non-violent, low-level drug offenders out of prison and establish services to stop repeat offending.

Stephen Glassman, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, said, “Connecticut is on the way to becoming a national leader in the kind of criminal justice reform that the public is demanding and which makes economic sense. These days, almost no sensible person believes that drug possession should be punished with a lengthy prison sentence and virtually everyone agrees that we’ve spent far too long on the wasteful practice of rotating people in and out of jails and prisons. A few inexpensive interventions can help people access drug treatment therapies, mental health services and ways for people to reintegrate themselves back into society.”

A recent Quinnipiac poll found that Connecticut voters widely support, by 67 to 28 percent, reducing currently draconian penalties for small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor. By even greater margins, 82 to 15 percent, voters support eliminating harmful mandatory minimum sentences for small amounts of illegal drugs.

According to various estimates, Connecticut could save tens of millions of dollars a year by no longer locking up minor, non-violent offenders and reducing recidivism.