Video: Committee Eyes Changes for Prisons, Judiciary

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UNDATED, Miss. (WCBI)-Mississippi taxpayers can’t afford to continue paying the rising costs of putting people in prison. But they can’t stand letting inmates out early either.

That’s the balancing act faced by Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps and a legislative study committee. The committee hopes to recommend changes when the Legislature convenes in January.

Among the changes are limits on the prison system’s ability to release inmates early for good behavior. On the flip side, judges may be given more leeway to find alternative sentences like drug courts or house arrest for petty thefts and minor drug cases. Sending people back to prison for technical parole violations also would be reduced.