Pubdate: Thu, 06 Mar 2003
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: David Crary, Associated Press

STATES GET NOT-SO-TOUGH ON CRIME

Budget Woes Force Many To Free Inmates, Close Jails

Prosecutors are uneasy; longtime advocates of sentencing reform are 
blinking in amazement. After years of tough-on-crime measures that boosted 
America's prison population to 2 million, politicians in many states are 
reversing course.

Desperate to avert projected deficits, legislatures nationwide have 
curtailed corrections spending, or are at least considering it, by 
releasing inmates early, closing prisons, diverting drug offenders to 
treatment programs and moderating tough sentencing laws. The appetite for 
building ever more prisons has faded.

"Our efforts to provide for the public safety must encompass more than 
simply locking more people up for longer periods," said Arkansas Gov. Mike 
Huckabee. "If that's the extent of our strategy, we'll go broke."

That kind of talk, from a conservative Republican, epitomizes the new 
outlook taking hold in many states.

For most of the previous decade, legislatures responded to the high crime 
rates of the 1980s by building new prisons and toughening sentences. Petty 
thieves received life terms under California's "three strikes, you're out" 
law; "soft on crime" became a dreaded epithet for politicians. The 
population of America's prisons and jails soared from fewer than 1.2 
million in 1990 to more than 2 million in 2000.

Now, attitudes toward drug use have softened, crime rates have dropped and 
state budgets, flush in the '90s, are in disarray. Reforms of prison and 
sentencing policies are unfolding even in states that prided themselves on 
get-tough policies.

South Carolina's Corrections Department has suggested money-saving options 
that could free as many as 4,000 inmates, including restarting a furlough 
program and emergency releases of non-violent offenders.

In Kentucky, many prosecutors and police officials were outraged when Gov. 
Paul Patton, frustrated by a budget impasse, released 883 inmates in 
December and January several months before their sentences ended. Four were 
arrested within days of release; one was charged with rape, another with 
robbing several banks.

Chastened by those crimes, Patton halted the early releases, but said they 
might resume if legislators fail to address budget problems.

Kentucky also plans to eliminate a program that teaches job skills to 
inmates. The state would save $5.7 million, but critics say it would result 
in more infractions in prisons and more recidivism as released prisoners 
fail to make it in the outside world.

In Oklahoma, a state commission has recommended reducing sentences for drug 
possession and strengthening community-based substance abuse programs.

"Every act does not necessarily require putting people in the 
penitentiary," said Dick Wilkerson, an Oklahoma state senator. "There's a 
misconception that community corrections are a bunch of people sitting 
around in a circle singing Kumbaya.

In Arkansas, Huckabee wants to divert more drug violators into treatment 
programs and find ways to handle parole violators without automatically 
returning them to prison. Law enforcement officials remain wary.

"You can't lock up everyone," said Chuck Lange, director of the Arkansas 
Sheriffs Association. "But there are a group of people, they just have to 
be incarcerated. Our trick in law enforcement is to decide which group you 
fall into."

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, president-elect of the 
National District Attorneys Association, said he and many colleagues are 
deeply concerned that budget-cutters will take dangerous risks.

"Crime is down because we put people in prison," he said. "Yes, it's 
expensive to put them there, but it's expensive when they come out and 
commit crimes."
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MAP posted-by: Beth