$75 Million to Reduce Inmate Population in US Jails

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — MacArthur Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the Unites States, plans to spend $75 million over five years to help reduce the inmate population in US prisons.

"MacArthur announced an initial five-year, $75 million investment plan that seeks to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails," a press release on the foundation's website reads. With this investment, the foundation aims to decrease over-reliance on jails in the country by finding 20 jurisdictions to implement plans of setting up more effective local justice systems, as this was where the problem of over-incarceration began.

"For too long America has incarcerated too many people unnecessarily, spending too much money without improving public safety," MacArthur's interim president, Julia Stasch, was quoted as saying in the press release — "McArthur hopes to support and demonstrate alternatives to incarceration as usual and to create demand and momentum for change across the coutry," — she explains.

According to McArthur, there is no need to keep individuals who cannot afford to post bail, nonviolent offenders or mentally ill people imprisoned. The foundation intends to engage law enforcers, judges, prosecutors, defenders, policymakers among other individuals in the effort, with four leading US criminal justice organizations providing technical assistance and counsel.

Currently there are more than 3,000 jails in the United States, and the inmate population counts for 731,000 people on any given day, according to a report by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice. The annual number of local jail admissions is said to be about 12 million.