Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2001
Source: Post, The (OH Edu)
Copyright: 2001 The Post
Contact:  http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1269
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

JAIL DECISION BUYS TIME FOR OTHER SOLUTIONS

Lawmakers take note; stop balancing your politically correct 
"tough-on-crime" campaigns on the backs of county taxpayers.

Outagamie County supervisors decided Wednesday night we just can't afford 
it any longer.

When the board voted down a $17.7 million proposal for a new jail and 
administrative offices, it raised serious questions about this cycle of 
arrest, prosecute, sentence and incarcerate, and whether building a jail, 
at least this jail, was sound economic policy.

It was noted during the meeting that county policy can't change state 
legislation, and certainly to some degree this is true. But Supv. Al 
Schmidt pointed out that "There's no incentive for them to change if we 
keep building jails."

Nationwide, state prison populations have decreased. Although state and 
federal prisons are operating at capacity or above, the actual inmate 
population is declining slightly, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice 
Statistics. It is the first measured decline in state prison populations 
since 1972. And yet, counties across the state are eager to build extra 
jail cells specifically to sell them to the state to house its felons.

Indeed, what incentive does the state have to change?

Meanwhile, our local jail space is aggravated by longer sentences and jail 
time ordered for infractions that years ago would have netted probation at 
best. We demanded tougher sentencing on drunk drivers and drug offenders 
and now we're paying for it. But the argument that tougher sentencing in 
these crimes is a deterrent has failed to bear fruit.

Nationwide, since 1980, drug arrests for possession alone have risen 
dramatically. Meanwhile, violent crime and property victimization rates in 
2000 were at the lowest since 1973, the year the bureau started its annual 
survey.

Putting such monitoring technology as electronic bracelets to greater use 
might have an impact on reducing nonviolent inmate populations, but it 
won't accommodate the wave of growing sentences coming from our courts. We 
have to find a better way to punish and rehabilitate nonviolent criminals 
who are clearly neither deterred by the threat of jail time nor improved by 
their stay. We have to correct this imbalance that has so many counties 
building bigger jails even as the crime rate drops.

It's a tough assignment, but the county's vote just gave us a reason to 
find a better answer.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager