But Mr. Mahoney said longer jail terms also led to overcrowded jails.

With jails severely overcrowded, some drug-addicted criminals are being referred to treatment centers instead.

Conditions at the overcrowded jail were described by a judge recently as 'squalid'.

She also said the laws would worsen the state's serious problem with overcrowded jails.

Seven times in the 1990's, county residents defeated an increase in the sales tax to expand the overcrowded jail.

Though there was not a scrap of evidence against them, they were marched single-file to the commune headquarters and thrown into the overcrowded jail.

Officials say a large-scale version of the program could relieve the city's overcrowded jails.

As head of a nonprofit criminal justice policy organization, I have worked with hundreds of overcrowded jails and prisons on this very question.

It is also reported that the journalist helped end the plight of child prisoners held in adult overcrowded jails with his expose on the issue.

It is important that the 83 000 detainees currently being held in Rwanda's overcrowded jails have a fair trial.