Another reason parole is bad:

LIFE AFTER PRISON: SHORT
If there is anything more risky than going to prison, it may be getting out of prison, a new study shows.

In the first two weeks after release, former inmates die at a rate 13 times that of the general population, a University of Colorado researcher has found.

The leading cause of death among former inmates is - by a whopping margin - drug overdose. And the most common deadly drug is cocaine, according to the study by Dr. Ingrid Binswanger, which will appear in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

Heart attacks pose the second greatest risk to the newly freed, followed by homicide.

The study followed 30,200 inmates released from Washington state prisons for just under two years.

In all, 443 former inmates died over the two years; 38 died within the first two weeks of release.

The risk of death was 5 1/2 times higher for women released from prison than for other women. Eighty-seven percent of ex-prisoners in the study were men.

The study did not differentiate among crimes committed or the length of time the inmates spent in prison.

So, if we optimistically release felons early with a bus ticket to known 'suspicious places' (for the amount of drug dealing), we could proudly tout a more improved recidivism rate?

Statistics can be your friend!

In an effort to reduce prison populations throughout the state, California governor Jerry Brown announced today that he would release all inmates who seemed as though they were nice enough people.

Details.

You can peel that one, but the "proposal" may represent nothing more than what already occurs.

[This message was edited by John A. Stride on 06-23-11 at .]