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Online Education in Prison Benefits the State and the Student

Prison education programs benefit everyone. The RAND Corporation, a non-profit global policy think tank, notes that offenders who have participated in prison education programs cut their risk of recidivism by 43 percent. Education programs focused on vocational training also raise their employability by 13 percent. “Our findings suggest that we no longer need to debate

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A Second Chance for Lifers in Louisiana?

Take a life, and spend your life in prison. It’s the “fair” second-degree murder sentence in Louisiana.  Lately, however, there has been some push back against this sentence in the state, and since Louisiana is one of just two states left in the U.S. that has a mandatory life sentence without parole for second-degree murder,

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Louisiana Public Service Commission Considers Prison Phone Issues

By Prison Legal News The Advocate reported in March 2014 that tensions were high between Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) Chairman Eric Skrmetta and PSC Commissioner Foster Campbell during a hearing on issues related to prison and jail phone rates. Previously, in December 2012, the PSC voted to lower the cost of phone calls made

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Taxes Should Be Used for Education, Not Incarceration

By Annette Sommers

Tangipahoa Parish officially acknowledged that voters shot down a proposed tax Tuesday which would have funded a new parish jail. The half-cent sales tax was expected to bring in $8.67 million a year to make more space for incoming inmates. 

That makes total sense. Let’s tax our citizens so we can build a new jail for criminals instead of implementing a tax to help relieve our education crisis, which would help combat crimes in the first place. 

Did Tangipahoa Parish really think its residents would fall for that?

While the people of Tangipahoa shot down the proposal for a jail tax, they approved the renewal of a tax that helps fund their parish library. A smart move credited to voters. 

But it won’t be long before other parishes try to pull what Tangipahoa did because of money. Sheriffs are paid $24.39 a day on average, per inmate. They benefit from higher incarceration rates. 

Let me repeat that. According to research done by the Department of Corrections, the more people who are in jail, the more sheriffs get paid. This is happening in Baton Rouge just as much as Tangipahoa, and unless people open their eyes to this corruption, it’s bound to continue. 

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