Pubdate: Thu, 28 Mar 2002
Source: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (WI)
Copyright: 2002 Eau Claire Press
Contact:  http://www.leadertelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/236
Author: Doug Mell, Managing Editor
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n558/a07.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

EDITORIAL: IT'S TIME FOR ACTION ON BARLAND'S ADVICE

It's time to spring people like Mario Martinez and Todd Graham Smith from 
prison.

But they might not want to leave.

After all, Martinez and Smith are in the Duluth Federal Prison Camp, dubbed 
"Club Fed" by some, and recently enjoyed a relaxing meal of steak and lobster.

Before dinner, the inmates could use the tennis and racquetball courts, 
work in the machine shop, see a movie in the 300-seat theater (complete 
with a popcorn machine), use the computer lab or warm up in front of the 
fieldstone fireplace.

And Martinez and Smith can thank Wisconsin's taxpayers for their stay. The 
state pays the federal government $44 a day to take care of Martinez and 
Smith. They are in Duluth because the state has no room for them in Wisconsin.

There is growing evidence that, in the craze to toughen criminal laws and 
penalties, there are too many people like Martinez and Smith spending too 
much time behind bars.

In 2001, the Department of Corrections spent more than $910 million, 
according to a Sunday story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which 
detailed the care and feeding of Martinez and Smith.

The story also emphasized the sensible views of former Eau Claire County 
Judge Thomas Barland, who led two task forces on criminal justice and 
prison reform issues.

"We are sending people to prison who could be handled in a way other than 
going to prison without endangering the public and for less money," Barland 
said.

Prison populations have exploded in Wisconsin, which now exports more 
inmates than any other state. The state has about 21,000 inmates, nearly 
triple the number of 10 years ago, and the state is 4,000 beds short of 
having room for its criminals.

While the Legislature has passed a law requiring convicts to serve all of 
their sentence, lawmakers have not agreed on guidelines that would have 
shortened sentences to comply with the "truth-in-sentencing" legislation.

Wisconsin also has been slow to embrace measures that other states use 
successfully as alternatives to long prison sentences for convicts who 
aren' t a danger to society.

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson put together a committee to find ways to enhance 
probation for non-violent offenders. But the result of that committee's 
work, completed 18 months ago, still hasn't been officially received and 
reviewed.

Four years ago Barland warned Thompson and other state officials that 
Wisconsin needs to take steps or face a severe problem when the 
truth-in-sentencing law took effect.

"I cannot emphasize more strongly the need to reinvent and enhance 
probation now, so that the state can have an attractive alternative to 
prison when judges begin sentencing under truth-in-sentencing next year," 
Barland wrote in 1998. His words went unheeded.

This means that people like Martinez and Smith are sitting in a comfortable 
federal facility instead of in the workforce, earning money to repay the 
victims of their white-collar crimes.

Martinez, a lawyer, stole more than $75,000 from his clients and got eight 
years in prison. Smith is serving six years behind bars for writing $3,100 
in bad checks in St. Croix County.

Neither Martinez nor Smith pose a threat to the public. Both say they would 
be better off out of prison where they could start repaying their 
court-ordered restitution.

Wisconsin, with a $1.2 billion budget deficit, needs to rethink who judges 
send to prison and for how long. It's time to dust off the advice Barland 
issued four years ago and make some fundamental changes in the criminal 
justice system.

- -- Doug Mell, managing editor
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