On the recordNovember 2, 2015
There are 30 States that have reduced crime and saved money. Texas was one of the first because they were looking at a $2 billion appropriation request to keep up with the slogans and sound bites that they had enacted in mass incarceration. At the rate they were going, they needed $2 billion in prison construction. They decided instead to invest it in prevention programs so fewer kids were getting in trouble; early intervention programs so that once people got in a little trouble, they wouldn't get in worse trouble; and rehabilitation in prisons so that as people got out, they were less likely to come back. They found that they not only didn't have to spend any of the $2 billion building prisons, they were able to close some of the prisons they had. Texas is a red State, and they called their initiative ``Right on Crime.'' Using the word ``right'' in both words is correct, and from the political right. So you had conservatives investing their money appropriately, reducing crime, and saving money.
