Pubdate: Thu, 02 Nov 2000
Source: Idaho State Journal (ID)
Copyright: 2000 Idaho State Journal
Contact:  PO Box 431, Pocatello ID 83204
Fax: 208-233-8007
Website: http://www.journalnet.com/
Author: Jane Shaner

WAR ON DRUGS HURTS TAXPAYERS

I've noticed that in all of your articles about prison overcrowding, 
you've never mentioned the overflow of women prisoners who are in 
county jails all over the state, waiting to get into the prison which 
is already 65 percent over capacity. There are twice as many of us in 
these county "holding facilities" as there are beds at the prison.

It costs the taxpayer $40 a day for each person in holding. That 
covers room and board and an adult baby sitter. It doesn't include 
medical or dental care. Neither does it include any kind of 
rehabilitation.

The parole board requires several rehab classes and self-help 
seminars before you can parole. None of which are available at these 
holding facilities. By the time we get to the prison, there isn't 
enough time to complete the classes. The parole board says come back 
in six months, as if it were the blink of an eye. Somebody else gets 
to sit in holding for another six months, which costs the taxpayers 
another $7,300 just to sit waiting. Doing nothing. No one benefits 
from this system.

So, who is at fault here? The judges, who irresponsibly sentence 
people with minor offenses such as a dirty test to prison? The 
Department of Corrections who has watched the trend as female 
offenders have increased by 700 percent in the last few years? The 
parole board for denying parole to 44 percent of the female inmates 
even though they know about the overcrowding? Or could it be 
politicians who sold the public on "zero tolerance" without telling 
them about the enormous cost to them? After spending billions of 
dollars for "the war on drugs," has there been any victory? The big 
causalities in the "war" have been the taxpayer.

Jane Shaner,
Bannock County Jail
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