At first, the building housed only immigrants slated for deportation; now its detainees, 216 in all, are nonviolent federal prisoners awaiting trials or transfers.

Kentucky, Montana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas are releasing certain nonviolent prisoners early.

The Governor is very vocal about his desire to keep even nonviolent prisoners in jail for longer periods of time.

A new Day Reporting Center in Mount Vernon has opened as an alternative to prison for nonviolent prisoners.

The plan includes a modest expansion of the state's shock incarceration program, a boot-camp program for nonviolent prisoners.

Katherine N. Lapp, the governor's criminal justice coordinator, said those three programs had resulted in the early release of nearly 37,000 nonviolent prisoners since 1995.

The bill would make nonviolent prisoners eligible for this type of parole after serving at least half of a two- to four-year sentence.

But there's no choice until we get more cells or divert more nonviolent prisoners into prison alternatives like work-release.

David Biggs, the chief court officer, spoke of the security risks of putting violent and nonviolent prisoners in the same holding area.

Stable, nonviolent prisoners are hardly a priority for most wardens.