Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2008
Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal (SC)
Copyright: 2008 The Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Contact:  http://www.goupstate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/977

REFORM SENTENCING

Demands to do something about prisons are piling up on
lawmakers

South Carolina's prison director has told lawmakers the  state needs
two new prisons just to hold the number of  inmates it already has.

The chief justice of the state Supreme Court has called  on lawmakers
to keep violent offenders in prison longer  and devise alternatives to
incarceration for nonviolent  offenders.

And the attorney general has suggested a similar plan -  no parole for
violent criminals and non-prison  punishments for others.

Lawmakers must start to listen.

As Chief Justice Jean Toal told them last week: "A lot  of voices have
been heard in all branches of  government, but this is really your
leadership issue  more than any other. You can bring together all of
the  stakeholders. ... It doesn't need to take years."

The General Assembly needs to do something now. The  state can't
afford to keep more than 24,000 people  locked up in overcrowded,
understaffed prisons.

The cost to the state is tremendous. Even though South  Carolina has
the lowest annual cost per inmate in the  nation at $14,000, it's
still expensive. It will become  even more expensive if the state
decides to do the job  properly and build and adequately staff more
prisons.

This situation also imposes costs on local governments.  Counties have
to keep inmates in county jails longer,  making them overcrowded,
driving up costs and pushing  them to build more jail capacity.

The social cost is enormous. Families are broken apart  by prison
sentences, causing an additional economic  burden on the state through
welfare benefits and  impacting the future of inmates' children.

Toal and Attorney General Henry McMaster have pointed  lawmakers
toward a direction that makes more sense.  They want violent
criminals, those who need to be taken  out of society, kept in prison
longer. And they want  the state to make that possible by sentencing
nonviolent offenders to something other than prison.

The state should expand the use and scope of drug  courts to push drug
offenders into court-supervised  treatment, keeping them out of prison.

Lawmakers should authorize alternative sentences for  other nonviolent
offenders. These offenders can be put  to work laboring for local
governments when they are  not working their regular jobs. They can be
sentenced  to lengthy community service commitments and  restitution.
They can be placed under monitored house  arrest.

If prisons are reserved for violent offenders, those  dangerous
criminals can be kept there longer, and other  offenders can be
punished within society so that their  families and jobs can be
maintained. Such a system  would cost all levels of government and
society much  less.
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