The Sentencing Project, a prison-reform advocacy group, points out that only two states saw their prison population decline last year, New York and New Jersey. New York's prison population has dropped 12 percent, and according to WNYC, 90 percent of that drop is attributable to fewer drug offenders being in prison. In the past few years, New York has adopted new policies shifting toward treatment and alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders, culminating most recently in the expected change to the state's draconian Rockefeller Drug laws.
Nine states -- Virginia, Minnesota, Idaho, West Virginia, Oregon, Colorado, Kentucky, Indiana, and Florida -- all saw their prison populations increase by over 30 percent.
-- A. Serwer
