The US jail system continues to grow with the latest Department of Justice figures showing 2.4 million Americans were now behind bars. While the rate is slowing, it's still growing.

Is it any wonder that Senator Jim Webb, who has pushed through the National Criminal Justice Act of 2009 reviewing the criminal justice system. Webb himself has a piece in Parade magazine explaining why the system needs to be fixed.

Still, maybe the prison industry is already winding back - because of the economy. Jails are shutting down, prisoners are being let out early and some offenders are managing to avoid jail, thanks to the recession.

Because it costs $30,000 a year to feed and house each inmate, lawmakers across the United States are now considering budget cuts that would close prisons, loosen sentencing guidelines, slash probation terms, let offenders out early or allow them to trade in their time behind bars for treatment.

As Ryan King, from the lobby group The Sentencing Project says, there isn't much alternative in this economic climate. "The fact is now in the recession reduced tax revenues coming in, all the other challenges the states are facing, there simply isn't money to build themselves out of the hole that they had traditionally used as an escape in the past."