BATON ROUGE (AP) - Gov. John Bel Edwards is announcing details of nearly $7 million in spending across Louisiana on prisoner rehabilitation and education programs, crime victims' services and other criminal justice initiatives.

  

The dollars come from savings associated with shrinking Louisiana's prison population through sentencing changes enacted in 2017. Seventy percent of the savings must be reinvested in the criminal justice system.

  

Much of this year's money will be spread across Caddo, East Baton Rouge, Orleans, St. Tammany and Jefferson parishes. The governor was announcing the spending at area events Wednesday and Thursday.

  

Dollars will pay sheriffs to boost efforts aimed at keeping people leaving prison from returning to crime, such as substance abuse treatment, educational training, work programs and transitional housing. And money will be spent on programs for victims of crime.