Pubdate: Tue, 04 Mar 2003
Source: Quad-City Times (IA)
Copyright: 2003 Quad-City Times
Contact:  http://www.qctimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857
Author: Charlotte Eby

IOWA LAWMAKERS GET ADVICE FROM CRIMINAL JUSTICE PANEL ON HOW TO REDUCE 
STATE PRISON EXPENSES

DES MOINES - Saving expensive prison beds for the worst criminals and 
sending the rest through drug treatment or rehabilitation programs has 
helped reduce prison populations around the country, corrections officials 
from other states told Iowa lawmakers Monday.

A panel of criminal justice officials from Kansas and North Carolina, two 
states that have stemmed the growth of their prison populations, shared 
their states' successes at a joint House and Senate committee meeting. The 
officials were invited as the Legislature considers reforming Iowa's 
sentencing laws to address a booming prison population. Iowa's prison 
system, with 8,516 inmates, is 25 percent over capacity.

Prison populations and spending on corrections programs are at historic 
highs across the nation, with the U.S. prison population rising 75 percent 
from 1990 to 2001. During that time, Iowa outpaced the national average, 
seeing its prison population increase 119 percent.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Gene Maddox, R-Clive, said the state 
will have to build another prison or do something to address overcrowding 
before it faces either court action or sanctions from the federal government

"I think there is a limit of how far we can go without building one. I 
would hope we could find ways to avoid it," he said.

Paul Morrison, a career prosecutor from Johnson County, Kan., said his 
state curbed prison growth and made room for violent offenders by reducing 
the length of prison terms for people convicted of property and drug 
possession crimes.

In the past, he said, a large share of Kansas offenders were going to 
prison, but not many were staying to serve long prison terms. "We had a 
system that was predominantly full of low-grade property offenders, and 
most of the people we need to really be afraid of weren't going to prison 
for as long as they should," he said.

Instead, many of those less-serious offenders are sent through mandatory 
drug treatment programs, which, he said, are far cheaper and have proven 
successful.

"They need to have somebody baby-sit them. It's a lot cheaper than sending 
them to prison," he added.

But Morrison warned legislators they could implement a program such as 
Kansas only if they give adequate dollars to community corrections agencies.

"If you're not planning on funding these programs, don't pass them because 
they will fail, he said.

North Carolina also leveled off its prison population by sending 
less-serious offenders through community-based corrections programs rather 
than to prison.

Robert Lee Guy, the director of that state's community corrections system, 
said almost half of all felons are now diverted to community corrections 
programs, such as house arrest, residential treatment or day reporting 
instead of prison.

Before the reforms, a larger percentage of the state's felons were sent to 
prison, but they were shuffled through the system more quickly, serving an 
average of 16 months. Felons now serve an average prison term of 38 months.

Some states have taken decisive action to reduce the number of inmates in 
their prison systems as they faced massive budget deficits. Kentucky 
granted early release or parole to hundreds of inmates, and Michigan did 
away with some mandatory minimum sentences.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Don Redfern, R-Cedar Falls, said it 
would be challenging to find more money for community-based corrections, 
but the policies the state is considering now could at least delay the need 
for building a new prison.

"I think that where the kind of reforms we talk about today become so 
important is as we look five, 15, 20 years out," he said.
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