We've been covering the growing state budget crisis as it affects the criminal justice system for several months. Fox Butterfield's article on Portland, Oregon's police department in Saturday's New York Times illuminates the issue:

Station houses now close at night, and the 960-member force is down 64 officers. With no money for overtime, undercover drug officers sometimes simply stop what they are doing — for instance, tailing suspects or executing search warrants — when their shifts end.

Because the city also has little money for public defenders, Mark Kroeker, the Portland police chief, said officers were now giving a new version of the Miranda warning when they arrested a suspect in a nonviolent crime.

"They effectively have to say, `If you can't afford a lawyer, you will be set free. Enjoy,' " Chief Kroeker said.

Other states are releasing inmates early to save money.

Maybe if we stopped putting non-violent offenders in jail in the first place, there would be money to house the remaining, dangerous ones.