"Should Judges Have to Weigh the Price Tag of Sending Someone to Prison?"

"Should Judges Have to Weigh the Price Tag of Sending Someone to Prison?"
Samantha Jones, Mother Jones
Jan.8, 2020
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A handful of reformist DAs think so. But they’re meeting plenty of resistance.
There’s one trial that Buta Biberaj will never forget. Biberaj, a former defense attorney, remembers how Virginia jurors in 2017 requested 132 years of prison for a man who stole car tires. The jurors may have been unaware that taxpayers could pay more than $25,000 a year to keep someone incarcerated—so by proposing their sentence, they were also suggesting that society fork over $3 million...
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