Pubdate: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) Section: Opinion/Letter of the day Copyright: 1999 Santa Barbara News-Press Contact: 805.966.6258 Website: http://www.newspress.com/ Author: Michael Freidman, Carpinteria. LET'S PAY CRIMINALS TO BEHAVE THEMSELVES In your recent editorial, "The prison dilemma," you talk about our state's burgeoning prison population and point out that a large percentage of inmates are being incarcerated for non-violent crimes. You further state that putting someone in prison for 25 years costs $500,000 and ask whether California's taxpayers should really be footing such a massive bill, especially when cheaper alternatives to prison are available for non-violent offenders. I could not agree more, and the questions you raised got me to thinking. Of course, vicious felons belong in prison, but instead of jailing non-violent criminals, let's just pay each of them $250,000 on the condition that they "behave themselves" over the next 25 years. This would produce a number of major benefits for everyone: it would encourage non-violent offenders to mend their anti-social ways in the future, it would spur economic growth, since many of these misguided folks would find ways of spending their $250,000 within our state, it would eliminate the problem of prison overcrowding and also the need for more multi-billion dollar bonds to build additional prisons. Furthermore, it would save taxpayers $500,000 for each 25 year prison term that is no longer necessary. Deduct the $250,000 paid to each non-violent offender, and you still get a net savings of $250,000 per conviction I was so excited by this idea that I got out my calculator and reckoned what my plan would save Californians over the next 25 years. Using the most conservative of estimates, I came up with the staggering sum of $25 billion dollars. $25 billion which would then be available for things like education, road maintenance and even -- perish the thought -- tax cuts. Given that I have just discovered such a creative way to save Californians 25 billion bucks, I think a 10 percent commission on the savings is not a lot for me to ask. Michael Freidman lives in Carpinteria. - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry