After last week's rather scary news that for the first in U.S. history more than one of every 100 adults is behind bars, a higher rate than any other nation on earth, it came as a bit of relief to realize that the story in Montana is a lot brighter.

It turns out that the number of incarcerated people in Montana dropped by nearly 4 percent last year - the biggest decrease among the 13 states whose prison population went down.

That doesn't mean that Montana law-breakers are suddenly seeing the light and turning into a bunch of altar boys. It means that the state's corrections system finally is beginning to handle convicted criminals with an eye toward actual corrections.

Following a decade - the 1990s - in which Montana added almost 1,000 new prison beds, the state now has embarked on a whole new philosophy: helping criminals deal with the addictions or mental illness that got them into trouble in the first place.

Montana has built lockdown treatment centers for repeat drunk drivers and meth abusers, and it has added mental health and drug addiction counselors to the state's probation and parole offices. It also has expanded pre-release centers that let felons stay in their communities and continue to hold jobs, albeit under close supervision.

The goal, according to Department of Corrections Director Mike Ferriter, is to reserve regular prison cells for the 20 percent of Montana's convicts who are the greatest threat to society. Ideally, punishment for the rest would take place at some sort of community facility in which their punishment would include the kind of help that will make them less likely to repeat their offenses.

It's not as if Montana had a lot of choice in the matter. Corrections were threatening to eat up the whole state budget. But no matter. What's important is that the fiscally smart thing to do also was the socially right thing to do.