According to this Associated Press report, Connecticut’s prison population is at its lowest level in a decade. Michael Lawlor, the state’s undersecretary for criminal justice planning, says the population could drop even lower, and believes “efforts by former Governor M. Jodi Rell and legislators to punish non-violent offenders in more cost-effective ways is helping to reduce the prison population.”

In light of this success, Connecticut lawmakers have also revived some of Governor Rell’s former proposals, such as incentives for prisoners to participate in drug treatment and educational programs, in an effort to reduce prison costs in the face of a budget crisis. Right on Crime’s Marc Levin highlighted Governor Rell’s reforms in Thinking Outside the Cell: A Road Map to More Cost Effective Texas Corrections, and it seems newly elected Governor Daniel Malloy “wants to build on [her] success.”