Pubdate: Thu, 22 May 2003
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2003 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: G.I. Allison
Note: G. I. Allison is pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in 
Greensboro and Voting Rights Project Coordinator of Democracy North Carolina.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

TIME FOR SENTENCING REFORM

Our Future Economic Development Ought Not Depend Upon Prison Bars

It doesn't need to be repeated, but for the record, North Carolina 
lawmakers are faced with difficult funding decisions this year. And the 
public is taking it personally -- whether we have a child in public school 
or a parent on Medicaid. As taxpayers and as a community, we're hurt by 
these cuts.

The budget pain is being spread indiscriminately, we're told. Everyone has 
to make sacrifices. What we're not being told, however, is that the joint 
budget conference committee will vote on a proposal to give the Department 
of Correction a virtual credit card to pay for three more 1000-bed prisons 
even though violent crime has declined.

The budget already includes $59 million to operate three new prisons in 
Anson, Scotland and Alexander Counties, which the state is buying for $225 
million ($380 million with interest). If these prisons go through, the 
correction department intends to ask for four more in the near future.

Why is the state being short-sighted in its approach to crime? North 
Carolina has been a model for community corrections programs in the South. 
These programs were working until the state started slashing the funding.

North Carolina's prison population has increased steadily over the past 
decade because too many prisoners are serving longer sentences due to 
inflexible sentencing guidelines. North Carolina has the fifth highest rate 
of incarceration in the country for people convicted for drug crimes, and 
African Americans are grossly over-represented among the state's 
incarcerated drug offenders.

We cannot in our good conscience spend millions to build more prisons until 
we give sentencing reform a fair hearing. In California, the public voted 
to divert 30,000 drug offenders from prisons into treatment, saving the 
state billions, and many other states have adopted other innovative 
alternatives to prison expansion.

The state's solution to an increasing prison population cannot be to build 
more prisons. Other states have gone down this path and have learned that 
building prisons without implementing reasonable sentencing reforms is a 
daunting, hopeless and expensive cycle billed to taxpayers, prisoners, 
their families and future generations.

Prisons are an expensive business. It costs the state almost $30,000 to 
lock up a prisoner in a close-security prison annually. If that money were 
spent on university scholarships for example, you could pay tuition and 
fees for seven students at UNC and have some money left over for books. 
With North Carolina in such a dire financial situation, we should ask: 
Could money spent on prisons be better used to keep people out of prison?

We implore the joint conference committee and Gov. Easley to envision a 
future where real economic development is not contingent on prison bars, 
but on programs that make N.C. proud; where people have the basic resources 
to live healthy and fruitful lives and build vibrant communities. Voting no 
on prisons and implementing proposed sentencing reforms is the first step 
towards this future.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager