Today, Open Society Institute-Baltimore released a new report, “Building on the Unger Experience: A cost-benefit analysis of releasing aging prisoners.”
The new report follows the Justice Policy Institute report, “The Ungers: Five Years and Counting,” which detailed OSI’s five-year investment to provide reentry services for aging prisoners in the “Unger Group,” who were returning to communities, as a way to demonstrate that more prisoners could safely be released without any negative impact on public safety.
Building on the Unger Experience includes a fiscal analysis that documents savings to taxpayers resulting from the release of “the Ungers” to the community. That analysis found that releasing the Unger Group resulted in a projected savings of $185 million for Maryland taxpayers. This brief details the findings of that analysis and shows that releasing aging prisoners with the proper support is not only safe and humane but also cost-effective.
