DA Krasner Announces New Sentencing Policy For Prosecutors
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's District Attorney has announced a new policy which directs prosecutors to ask for lighter sentences, and to add up how much that time behind bars will cost taxpayers.
When city prosecutors recommend sentencing guidelines to a judge, they now must explain their reasoning and note the price tag of imprisonment, according to the new policy under DA Larry Krasner.
"The District Attorney's Office, along with the judiciary committee, are stewards of public resources that should carefully be directed towards trying to build a just society and make people safe," said Krasner.
City records show it costs at least $42,000 (between $42,000 to $60,000) to incarcerate one person for one year.
The objective, he says, is to end mass incarceration - which "tears the fabric" of defendants' families and work relationships that Krasner says "tend to rehabilitate them."
"I am not going to tell judges what they should or should not do in making their own independent considerations," Krasner said.
