Pubdate: Sun, 31 Dec 2006
Source: Star-News (NC)
Copyright: 2006 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500

BETTER, CHEAPER WAYS TO FIGHT CRIME

Before North Carolinians spend tens of millions of dollars to build 
even more prisons, maybe we should look at how other states deal with 
prison overcrowding.

Rather than building cells until the sun burns out, some states have 
shortened the sentences for nonviolent crimes and minor drug 
offenses. That leaves space for predatory thugs who pose a much 
greater threat to the public. And though it would seem logical that 
crime should go down as prison populations go up, some statistics 
show just the opposite. Then there's New York City. Its murder rate 
fell by 70 percent in the past decade - at the same the city was 
cutting its inmate population by 34 percent. The man who oversaw that 
process was the corrections commissioner for former Mayor Rudolph 
Giuliani, who built a national reputation for reducing crime.

Even if North Carolina weren't expecting 6,400 more prisoners than 
cells within nine years, lawmakers would be smart and humane to take 
an open-minded look at the way we deal with drug offenders. Federal 
and state laws often make little distinction between the merchants of 
narcotics and their customers. It's one thing if drugs are a 
business. It's another if they're a weakness.

Kansas and Nebraska are talking about expanding drug treatment 
instead of building more prison cells. Treatment not only costs a lot 
less, but it offers a chance to salvage a life and the lives of the 
user's loved ones. And saving those lives also saves money that 
otherwise would be spent for social programs, welfare, courts and jails.

Every dollar spent to deal with failure is a dollar not spent to help 
people avoid failure - not spent for schools, health, recreation or 
other positive programs. As Giuliani's corrections commissioner 
recently observed, "sure, we can lock up more people, but that's why 
your kid's pre-K class has 35 kids - all the money is going to prisons."

Only a fool wants to let dangerous criminals among us. Only a 
spendthrift believes we can lock up everybody who does anything that 
politicians call wrong.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman