Easing Parole Requirements

Criminal justice experts are recommending a package of proposals for lawmakers to cut costs in Louisiana prison sentencing and parole, but stakeholders say the more substantial changes may have to wait until next year, after the fall legislative elections. The subject is a tricky one in Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate in the country, but also a conservative Legislature where being considered "tough on crime" is a political benefit and campaign rallying cry. One of the measures would ease parole requirements for some convicted of offenses that are neither violent nor sex-related.