Tagged: prison

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York officials project the state's prisons will shed 1,000 more inmates over the next four years, partly because of relaxed drug laws.

That follows a 25 percent drop since 1999.

The inmate population is below 55,000 after peaking at more than 72,000 in 1999 under the harsh Rockefeller-era drug laws.

A Massachusetts man convicted of conspiring to help al-Qaida has been sentenced by a federal judge in Boston to 17 and a half years in prison.