Pubdate: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 Source: Island Packet (SC) Copyright: 2003,sThe Island Packet Contact: http://www.islandpacket.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1514 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) STATE PRISON PROBLEM BIGGER THAN EGGS, VISITS Legislature Cannot Afford Its Crime Policy State Corrections Department director Jon Ozmint is sending strong signals that his department's budget problems need quick attention by the legislature next year. Ozmint is throwing out ideas right and left to raise revenue and cut expenditures. Two of the most recent ones sound like clunkers: cutting in half the time families can visit inmates and increasing the prison system's production of eggs from 10,000 to 100,000 a day. It may be a privilege, not a right, for prisoners to get visits from home, as Ozmint says. But families and friends counter that the cutback will hurt morale and rehabilitation. It's hard to see the cutback producing enough gains to overcome those downsides. And putting the state prison system into the wholesale egg business, with an eye toward expanding into the dairy business, is questionable. It is not new for the prison system to offer entrepreneurial services, but some of it has already been challenged by the private sector. It is easy to see why Ozmint is searching for answers. Over the past three years, the department's budget has been cut by $72 million, yet demand rises constantly. The department has lost 1,500 workers, down to 5,500 from 7,000. And it ran a $27 million deficit in the last fiscal year. Meanwhile, the state's 29 prisons are at capacity with 23,500 inmates. And the inmate population is growing each year by 5 percent. The department is simultaneously slashing expenses while taking in 1,200 additional prisoners each year. The math on that adds up to a disaster. The easy way out is to blame "government fat." All any agency has to do to survive is "cut the fat," according to old cliches. But in the case of the South Carolina prison system, there is more to the problem than that, and to Ozmint's credit he is putting the issue on the table. South Carolina needs alternative sentences for nonviolent prisoners. To have room for violent criminals, others must go. Almost half the state's prisoners are behind bars for nonviolent crimes. Ozmint is not suggesting a jailbreak, but he is putting out there a policy issue that the legislature must address. Legislators who live in fear of being called "soft on crime" have erred by being soft on common sense. "Tough" mandatory sentences, which don't even allow model prisoners to earn early release, are something this state cannot afford. The legislature must do better at anticipating the financial commitments needed to carry out its laws, whether it is mandatory sentencing or school accountability. And the legislature is going to have to learn that it cannot have its cake and eat it too. It cannot pass high standards and then leave a system $27 million in the red. Each criminal case is based on a unique set of facts. Judges, in conjunction with prosecutors, defense attorneys and victims of crime, need more flexibility in sentencing. The "get tough" ideas from legislators are impractical, and the state cannot afford them. House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said he can see a need to look at options for nonviolent criminals. He should use his trusted conservative leadership to help the legislature work through the prison overpopulation problem now on Ozmint's desk. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin