Pubdate: Sun, 22 May 2005
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Note: Source rarely prints LTEs received from outside its circulation area
Author: Jill Kriesky, Si Kahn and Dennis Sparks
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Note: Jill Kriesky is executive director of the Appalachian Institute at 
Wheeling Jesuit University; Si Kahn is executive director of Grassroots 
Leadership; and Dennis Sparks is Executive Director of the West Virginia 
Council of Churches.

PRISON SYSTEM'S GROWTH MORTGAGING STATE'S FUTURE

WEST Virginia must ensure public safety. But it cannot afford to mortgage 
its economic and educational future to an ever-expanding prison system.

In the last 10 years, the number of people locked in West Virginia's 
prisons more than doubled. Between 1994 and 2004, the state's prison 
population rose from 2,392 to 5,032, an increase of 110 percent. At the 
same time, both the state's population and its crime rate stayed about the 
same.

The growth of people in prison significantly exceeds national trends, and 
many of the state's sentences are far longer than the national average. For 
some offenses, people spend far longer in prison than the national average.

The impact on the state's finances is staggering. Since 1990, West Virginia 
has spent well over $100 million just to build new prisons. The amount 
spent each year on the Division of Corrections has almost tripled in the 
last 10 years.

While funds for Corrections have risen dramatically, social service 
programs and education have been shortchanged. The state has increased 
spending on prisons five times faster than it has on higher education.

Champions of fiscal economy have a strong argument for consideration of 
alternative responses to nonviolent crime. A substantial proportion of 
those incarcerated by the DOC have been convicted of nonviolent crimes. 
Employing those alternatives to traditional incarceration, which have 
already proved effective in the state, can save millions of dollars for the 
state, while providing opportunities for rehabilitation.

Currently, the Lee Day Report Center, operating in Wheeling and Weirton in 
the Northern Panhandle - now serving Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio 
counties - provides an array of services to carefully supervised 
participants. These participants remain in the community. They must report 
on a regular basis as a condition of release or supervision in order to 
account for their movements, or to participate in programs, services, or 
activities offered at the center.

Treatment at the Lee Day Report Center costs $14 per day. Between 2001 and 
2004, 196 felony offenders were sentenced to the center, at a substantial 
saving to the state. The projected expansion of day report centers 
elsewhere in the state would result in major savings. Three centers would 
save $18 million to $27 million per year; seven centers would save $42 
million to $63 million per year.

There are compelling cost-saving arguments for West Virginia to expand and 
fully fund the day report center initiative. In addition, the centers' 
rehabilitation programs will help participants to become productive members 
of society and in some cases alleviate circumstances that result in crime. 
The day report center initiative will help break the cycle of living in 
deprived, dysfunctional environments, then being convicted of crimes, then 
returning from prison in such a condition as to add to one's home 
environment's dysfunction and with an excellent chance of returning to 
prison. As has been mentioned, such centers can also be of immense help in 
the re-entry of released prisoners, including parolees, into society. Given 
the tremendous financial and social benefits to the state, this report 
recommends that the West Virginia Legislature not only grant any increased 
budget requests by the governor for day report centers, but [that it] 
should fully fund this initiative.

At a time of financial stringency, and during an era in which the economic 
future of the state is tied to educational advancement, West Virginia 
appropriates $6,435 per full-time-equivalent higher education student, but 
$19,377 for each person incarcerated by the Division of Corrections. While 
state appropriations for higher education in inflation-adjusted dollars 
have increased, up 33 percent since 1994, state funds allocated to the DOC 
have increased 169 percent, five times as much.

West Virginia would do well to explore ways to slow down this steep rise in 
incarcerations and in prison costs. Implementing a cap on the number of 
people incarcerated should be a priority, along with re-examining 
sentencing and parole policies in the state that can lead to an end of the 
soaring number of incarcerations. A thorough re-examination of the recent 
parole policy of the state is in order. Embracing the approach already 
taken by the Northern Panhandle's Lee Day Report Center would lead to 
significant cost savings for the state, along with helping some of those 
convicted of nonviolent crimes become constructive members of society.

Directing money to prisons diverts money from higher education and from 
programs aimed at helping citizens mired in poverty. Slowing investment on 
Corrections will lead to increasing investment in the development of a 
productive 21st-century West Virginian population.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth