Internet Article Analysis 1

RUNNING HEAD: Internet Article Analysis

Internet Article Analysis
Steven Griffiths
CJS354
University of Phoenix
Steven Gilliken
7/28/13

Internet Article Analysis 2

Currently in the state of Idaho, we have some of the lowest crime rates in the nation. However
our prison population is growing at an escalated pace, at a time when other states are noticing a decline.
All three of the states branches of government from the current governor to the Idaho Supreme Court
to its legislature, are starting to come together to debut a new and intensive effort to locate whats
broken and how to fix it. Funding for this expedition has come from various forms of grant funding, as
well as aid from Pew Charitable Trusts, the United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice
Assistance, and the state council government justice center. Overall the state of Idaho had qualified for
$250,000 in grant money for its effort, at which the current governor made public as the first step in
fixing the low funded criminal justice sector of the state run agency. Criminal justice is taking a larger
and larger share of our state budget every year, Otter said. And despite Idahos low crime rates, one of
every 34 males is involved in the criminal justice system and one of every 156 females, he said. Plus, 51
percent of those in Idahos prisons are repeat offenders. So what are we not doing while we have
them, to prepare them for a life outside of the correctional environment that they end up in? Otter
asked. What more can we do? ("Idaho Launches Criminal Justice Reform Push", 2013).
Other states such as: South Carolina, Texas, Kansas and many others have brainstormed with
the same mentioned partners on the reinvestment in justice initiative which overall involves the
intensive analysis of data, developing policy options, and implementing new strategies and measuring
the after effects. Every tool that Idaho has access to will have to be used, which may include changes in
criminal sentencing, their treatment and education, and their rehabilitation. The overall aim of fixing the
budgeting issues as soon as possible is to relieve the strain from the Department of Corrections, and
start putting more emphasis offender based programs for the community.
In order to achieve the best results, the state is going to have to invest more financial resources
into their fiscal note writing process. By hiring a more professional research group and updating the
Internet Article Analysis 3

available data, better plans can be drawn out and executed. These are just some of the costs that are
lower based to give the greatest results, by enacting and maintaining the current criminal justice policies
of the state that are not over-spent programs that in turn weaken the overall economy of the state and
cause significant damage to the social fabric.
References
Idaho launches criminal justice reform push. (2013). Retrieved from
http://m.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2013/jun/18/idaho-launches-criminal-justice-reform-push/