HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut has received a $150,000 grant to help it come up with a plan to reduce the number of people jailed while awaiting trial or serving short sentences.
The grant is one of 20 awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to jurisdictions across the nation. Ten of those jurisdictions will be chosen to receive $4 million grants to implement their plans.
Mike Lawlor, the state’s undersecretary for criminal justice and planning, says the grant dovetails nicely with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Second Chance Society initiative.
He says there are currently about 4,000 prisoners in jails awaiting trials or serving sentences of a year or less.
He says about 300 of them are there because they could not post bond after being charged with simple drug possession.
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