Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jan 2001
Source: Rutland Herald (VT)
Copyright: 2001 Rutland Herald
Contact:  P.O. Box 668, Rutland VT 05702-0668
Fax: (802) 775-2423
Feedback: http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/Opinion/Letters/
Website: http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/
Author: Tracy Schmaler, Vermont Press Bureau
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n101/a04.html

SENATE LEADERS: CRIME, PUNISHMENT NEED ATTENTION

MONTPELIER - Painting a bleak portrait of the state's criminal justice 
system, Senate leaders on Thursday pledged to devote their efforts in the 
coming session to finding ways to combat prison overcrowding and the 
growing number of young offenders.

"We feel this needs diligent attention," said Senate President Pro Tempore 
Peter Shumlin.

Shumlin, Lt. Gov. Douglas Racine and key senators announced a new 
initiative that would put the Judiciary and Appropriations committees in 
charge of taking a comprehensive look at the criminal justice system.

The Democrats set forth no solutions to halt the trends that result in more 
money being spent to put more Vermonters in jail. They spoke generally of 
finding ways to reach offenders before they broke into the court system, 
rather than a rush to erect new jails to accommodate them.

"It's clear that we can't build our way out of this problem," said Sen. 
Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Even with the 350-bed prison in Springfield set to open in 2003, the state 
would be short 700 beds by 2005, Sears said. That deficit would require 
spending upwards of $40 million on another prison and allocating $20 
million annually after that to keep the facilities operating.

"The question is, do we want to put that $20 million there or elsewhere?" 
he said.

The state sends a little more than 400 inmates to jails in Virginia and New 
Jersey because of a lack of capacity. While the population is expected to 
increase - statistics show that every month 15 more Vermonters are sent to 
prison than there are released - Corrections Commissioner John Gorczyk said 
he had not added any new money in his budget to send more inmates out of 
state in the future.

"We just can't sustain the growth in budget," he said. "We're working hard 
to move offenders through system in a more efficient way."

Gorczyk said he was pleased with the Democratic leadership's decision to 
focus attention on the problems, particularly the attention on prevention 
of the behavior that sets young people on the path to prison.

Sears, who runs a residential program for troubled youth, echoed that 
sentiment earlier in the day, noting that the trends he has seen in his 
work have alarmed him for years. He and Sen. Susan Bartlett, chairwoman of 
the Appropriations Committee, both have backgrounds working with at-risk 
youth and embraced the project.

"If we don't have this conversation now and we don't come up with a 
strategy now, it's never going to change," she said.

The announcement from the Democratic leadership in the Senate comes a week 
after Gov. Howard Dean made a public pitch for more law enforcement and 
stricter penalties for drug dealers. He has proposed $230,000 for local 
police departments to hire officers to help fight the expansion of heroin 
in the state.

Dean said he thought the Senate's effort was a step in the right direction, 
but stood behind his earlier call for longer sentences for drug dealers. "I 
think it sounds like a good idea, but is not for dealers," he said. "If 
somebody is caught dealing heroin, they should be locked up for as long as 
possible."

Senate leaders warned that money to boost one facet of the system, be it 
law enforcement or more jails, would not produce long-term results.

"The system doesn't have to operate in a vacuum," Sears said. "You just 
can't put it (money) in one area and expect it not to bulge someplace else."
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