Fiscal strain, not ideology alone, drove states to decarcerate drug offenders.

Evidence

The second factor driving the reversal in drug sanctions is the “Great Recession” that began around 2008. The fiscal strain produced by the recession forced states to re-examine their budgets and budget priorities. Many states decided to reduce their use of imprisonment for drug offenders and increase their use of community-based sanctions and drug treatment—a shift that was both fiscally prudent and reflective of the changing sensibilities toward drug control. Notably, the “Right on Crime” initiative, a coalition of conservatives, emerged concomitant to the Great Recession. This organization’s statement of principles advocated cost-effective criminal justice policies/practices and it has supported a number of reforms aimed at diverting nonviolent and low-level drug offenders from prison to community-based sanctions such as probation with drug treatment. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1085

Categorization

• XREF: Echo of the cost-driven reform logic in the library’s economics-of-institutions readings, where fiscal and incentives-based explanations reshape policy outcomes.