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For Monday: With more than 1 in 100 people in the United States behind bars, America has the shameful distinction of having the highest rate of incarceration in the world. A newly released study by the Pew Center on the States http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf
found the prison population grew last year, as it has every year since 1987. Virginia's 5 percent rate of growth exceeded the national average of 1.6 percent.

With its more than 38,500 prisoners to support and guard -- the figure for Virginia as of the first of this year -- the Old Dominion needs to use every tool it has to keep corrections costs in line. Fortunately, the state has experience at this sort of thing. When the Allen administration abolished parole in the mid-1990s, it overhauled the sentencing system for nonviolent offenders.

Judges can divert a lot of low-risk offenders from prisons and jails with alternative sentences. But even in tight budget times -- especially in tight budget times -- the state needs to do more to keep people who present little danger to society out of jail, and on a path to productive citizenship.