Re: The $2.6 billion budget shortfall, PubliCola reader Perfect Voter gets today's "Comment of the Day" :

3. Perfect Voter says:

How many prisons could we close if the Gov. commuted the sentences of all the low-level non-violent drug offenders now incarcerated?

11/25/2009 at 1:12 pm

Definitely some macro political wisdom there about priorities.

However, a little micro political reality: While the fiscal note on last year's marijuana reform bill —which downgraded possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil infraction— put  savings at $16 million, most of those savings came at the county and local court level not the state prison level. The state would have gotten about $1.2 million.

Typical low-level drug offenders (simple possession as opposed to manufacturers and dealers) don't do time in state facilities. Typically, they get 90 days at the local level.

However, Perfect Voter is onto something here. "Clucks," for example—addicts who are exploited by pushers to deal—do get time in state prison (where you go for drug sentences over a year) for participating in the drug trade at that more prominent level.

So, clearly, there is a waste of money in the system.