The American Civil Liberties Union released a report that found six states not only reduced their incarceration rates by focusing on parole or probation instead of prison time, but cut costs without increasing crime rates.

Michael Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice, is quoted in the article: "There's a sense now that you're just not getting a good return on your investment from dumping $70 billion a year into prisons," he said. The ACLU report highlights Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, South Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio "as traditionally 'tough-on-crime' states that benefited from reducing incarceration rates."