Chester County (Penn.) Prison Population at 15-Year Low

[Assistant Probation Chief] Lopez said the attitude of the prison and probation staffs had changed to focus more on who should rightfully be in prison and who should be trying to get out of the criminal justice system. “How can we get them back into the community in a positive way?” she said the new attitude had become. “I think we’ve gotten smarter.”

The pair cited three key programs in place that had helped reduce the prison population [including] the Swift Alternative Violation Enforcement (SAVE) program, which targets high-risk offenders who have a history of probation violations but gets them in and out of the court review faster so they ended up having shorter stays.