Report: Prison costs unsustainable

A new study says Georgia’s prison system is heading toward financial disaster. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says the cost of housing inmates in Georgia will continue on an "unsustainable path" unless lawmakers intervene. The GBPI says lawmakers should focus on better differentiating between violent and non-violent offenders, because the rate of non-violent offenders living in the prison system is rising rapidly. The study finds that the number if inmates in jail or prison more than doubled from 1991 to 2007 to 52,000 people … at a cost of more than half a billion dollars. The researchers predict the number of inmates to rise by another 15,000 by the year 2015.