Pubdate: Sun, 2 May 2004
Source: Citizens' Voice, The (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Copyright: 2004 The Citizens' Voice
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/1334
Website: http://www.citizensvoice.com/

MAKE SENTENCE FIT CRIME, END OVERCROWDING

Alternative sentencing is not a free ride for drug offenders.

Pennsylvania legislators and corrections officials need to get serious 
about our overcrowded prisons.

This very dangerous problem puts guards and the public at risk and can no 
longer be kept on the back burner, especially when viable solutions have 
been languishing in the state Legislature for several years. It's time for 
our elected officials to support an alternative sentencing bill that will 
help alleviate prison overpopulation, save money and enhance public safety 
by reducing the chances that offenders will commit another crime. 
Introduced by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, the alternative 
sentencing bill would allow judges to sentence hundreds of nonviolent 
criminals to drug or alcohol treatment programs instead of mandatory prison 
terms. Alternative sentencing is not a free ride for drug offenders. Under 
the proposal, prosecutors must first request that non-violent offenders be 
evaluated for treatment. Those approved by a judge would undergo 15 to 24 
months of rehabilitation, including six months in prison followed by 
participation in a community-based treatment program and then an outpatient 
program. Inmates who fail or are expelled can be sent to jail for their 
maximum sentence. Aggressively treating non-violent drug abusers will cost 
far less than sending them to jail for five-year mandatory sentences.

Experts predict that, even after subtracting the cost of treatment, state 
taxpayers would save as much as $40 million each year. Currently, the state 
pays more than $28,000 a year to house each of its nearly 41,000 prisoners. 
Concerned about public safety, state Rep. Phyllis Mundy recently threatened 
to take action if any more than 2,100 prisoners are housed at the State 
Correctional Facility at Dallas in Jackson Township, where the population 
continues to rise. What's frightening is that the number the Department of 
Corrections is now "comfortable with," 2,100 inmates, is already more than 
one and a half times the prison's capacity.

Matters are worse at Luzerne County Correctional Facility, which is 
bursting at the seems with more than twice the number of inmates for which 
it was designed. Wisely, our county commissioners are exploring similar 
ways to get non-violent drug offenders out of lock-up and into long-term 
treatment programs where they stand a chance at getting clean - and 
consequently becoming less likely to re-offend.

Prison populations ballooned after a decade or so of vote-hungry 
politicians enacting "tough on crime" mandatory minimum sentences, thereby 
tying the hands of judges and prosecutors who now have no flexibility in 
dealing with non-violent criminals. The result is more prisons, more 
overcrowding and a $1.4 billion corrections budget, an increase of 68 
percent over the last decade. This is a trend that can't continue.

The alternative sentencing bill is strongly backed by state Secretary of 
Corrections Jeffrey Beard, a career corrections official who has run the 
state prison system since 2001. His voice should be heeded. It's time to 
stop spending billions of dollars to cram thousands of non-violent inmates 
into our severely overpopulated prisons. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake