Pubdate: Mon, 5 May 2008
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A01, Front Page
Copyright: 2008 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Authors: Keith B. Richburg and Ashley Surdin, Washington Post Staff Writers
Cited: The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org/
Cited: Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending 
http://www.capps-mi.org/
Cited: Citizens Research Council http://www.crcmich.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

FISCAL PRESSURES LEAD SOME STATES TO FREE INMATES EARLY

NEW YORK -- Reversing decades of tough-on-crime policies, including 
mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug offenders, many 
cash-strapped states are embracing a view once dismissed as 
dangerously naive: It costs far less to let some felons go free than 
to keep them locked up.

It is a theory that has long been pushed by criminal justice 
advocates and liberal politicians -- that some felons, particularly 
those convicted of minor drug offenses, would be better served by 
treatment, parole or early release for good behavior. But the states' 
conversion to that view has less to do with a change of heart on 
crime than with stark fiscal realities. At a time of shrinking 
resources, prisons are eating up an increasing share of many state budgets.

"It's the fiscal stuff that's driving it," said Marc Mauer, executive 
director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that 
advocates for more lenient sentencing. "Do you want to build prisons 
or do you want to build colleges? If you're a governor, it's kind of 
come to that choice right now."

Mauer and other observers point to a number of recent actions, some 
from states facing huge budget shortfalls, some not, but still 
worried about exploding costs.

. To ease the overcrowding and save California about $1.1 billion 
over two years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has proposed freeing 
about 22,000 prisoners convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual offenses 20 
months earlier than their scheduled release dates. He also wants to 
place them on unsupervised parole, saving the state the cost of 
having all parolees assigned to an agent.

. Lawmakers in Providence, R.I., approved an expansion last week of 
the state's "good time" early-release rules to cover more inmates 
serving shorter sentences. The new rules, which will put more inmates 
under post-prison supervision, are expected to save Rhode Island an 
estimated $8 billion over five years.

. In Kentucky, where 22,000 state inmates are housed in county 
prisons and private facilities, lawmakers agreed to allow certain 
nonviolent, nonsexual offenders to serve up to 180 days of their 
sentences at home, and to make it easier for prisoners to earn credit 
for good behavior. The move could save the state, which is facing a 
$900 million deficit over the next two years, as much as $30 million.

. In Mississippi, where the prison population has doubled during the 
past dozen years to 22,600, Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has signed into 
law two measures that will reduce it: One to let certain nonviolent 
offenders go free after serving 25 percent of their sentences, and 
the other to release some terminally ill inmates.

. South Carolina, meanwhile, is looking to abolish parole, in part to 
slow the growth of its prison population since there would be fewer 
people returned to prison for parole violations.

Proposals to free prisoners are still met with opposition, 
particularly from law enforcement officials who fear that a flood of 
released felons could return to their communities, and from victims 
groups that worry that justice is being sacrificed for budgetary concerns.

The California plan has drawn criticism from the Legislative 
Analyst's Office, the state's nonpartisan fiscal adviser, which 
warned that 63,000 mid-level offenders would "effectively go 
unpunished, serving little or no prison time" and would not have 
active supervision.

The proposal also worries local governments and police in California, 
particularly in Los Angeles County -- home to the nation's largest 
prison system, which supplies about a third of the state's prison 
population. "It's kind of like the volcano has erupted," County 
Sheriff Lee Baca said. "To let out 63,000 prisoners on summary parole 
- -- which means no parole -- is not good policy."

Bob Pack, 52, of Danville, Calif., is particularly disturbed by the 
prospect of softer punishment forthose convicted of drunken driving. 
In 2003, Pack's two children -- Troy, 10, and Alana, 7 -- were struck 
and killed when a drunk driver's car jumped a curb and ran onto a 
neighborhood sidewalk. The driver had three prior drunken-driving convictions.

Said Pack: "I guarantee you that if this program is fulfilled, 
somewhere down the road -- it could be three months or a year -- 
there's going to be a family in court over the death of a loved one, 
because of someone who got out early."

But for now, state officials are finding themselves under mounting 
pressure to cut costs and are looking at their rising prison population.

Between 1987 and last year, states increased their higher education 
spending by 21 percent, in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to 
the Pew Center on the States. During the same period, spending on 
corrections jumped by 127 percent.

In the Northeastern states, according to the Pew report, prison 
spending over the past 20 years has risen 61 percent, while higher 
education spending has declined by 5.5 percent.

California -- which has the country's worst fiscal crisis, with a 
potential shortfall of $20 billion -- has seen its prison-related 
spending swell to $10.4 billion for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. About 
170,000 inmates are packed into California's 33 prisons, which were 
designed to hold 100,000. About 15,000 prisoners are being housed in 
emergency beds, in converted classrooms and gymnasiums.

Rhode Island's prison population peaked and its 4,000-inmate prison 
capacity was exceeded in recent years, prompting a lawsuit and a 
court settlement. "The soaring inmate census has created a crisis 
here," said Ashbel T. Wall, the state's corrections director. "We've 
been busting the budget continuously. . . . Our prisons have been packed."

New Jersey is one state making changes out of a desire for more 
efficiency. Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D) is proposing legislation to 
expand drug courts to channel more nonviolent, first-time drug 
offenders into treatment instead of prisons, and also to expand 
supervised parole. Another proposal would change the parole policy so 
parolees were not automatically returned to prison for minor drug 
offenses, said Lilo Stainton, the governor's spokeswoman.

She said that in New Jersey's case, the changes are not 
budget-driven. "We think this is a more humane and sensible way to 
treat people," she said.

Michigan is grappling with a massive prison population, mainly 
because "truth in sentencing" rules make the state less generous 
about granting paroles. Michigan's incarceration rate is 47 percent 
higher than that of the other Great Lakes states, according to experts.

Michigan has become one of the few states that actually spend more on 
prisons than on higher education -- about $2 billion for prisons, and 
$1.9 billion in state aid to its 15 public universities and 28 
community colleges. "It's insane," said Barbara Levine of the 
Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending in Lansing. "The 
governor is always talking about how we need to be high tech. But 
these days, the best career opportunity is to get a job as a prison guard."

In fact, according to Thomas Clay, a prisons and budget expert with 
Michigan's nonprofit Citizens Research Council, the state government 
employed 70,000 people in 1980, including 5,000 working for the 
prisons system. Today, the number of state workers has dropped to 
54,000, but 17,000 work for the prisons.

"You've got two decades of failed policies," said Laura Sager a 
consultant in Michigan for Families Against Mandatory Minimums. She 
said mandatory sentencing laws and tough penalties for drug offenses 
in the 1980s "bloated prisons and prison populations, and the 
taxpayer is paying a very high price."

Now with states struggling with budget deficits, she said, "you have 
pressures that make it palatable to take a second look." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake