I am skeptical of 'savings' from proposed crime bill

NY Times:

Stalled Crime Bill’s Backers Hope Promise of Savings Can Move It Along


Supporters of a bipartisan criminal justice overhaul may have found an argument to break it loose: an estimate that it would save $722 million.
If they are going to allow what is in effect a jailbreak for criminals. the cost to the public will be higher, especially in poorer minority communities where the released prisoners are likely to congregate.

Rather than reducing sentences across the board, it would make more sense to go back to a system Texas used for years giving prisoners "good time" for good conduct in prison.  They would become eligible for parole much quicker if they behaved while in prison.  They could earn two days of their sentence for every day they had of good time, but if they screwed up and caused trouble they would lose that reduced time.

Granting them early parole after this system also gives them more incentive to stay straight after the get out, so they would not have to come back and serve the remainder of their sentence.

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