Pubdate: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 Source: Macon Telegraph (GA) Copyright: 2003 The Macon Telegraph Publishing Company Contact: http://www.macontelegraph.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/667 CONSIDER APPROPRIATE ALTERNATIVES TO PRISON Prison experience is not the classic entry you find on a job resume, but today it is a component of the background history for 5.6 million men and women in the United States who have been or are a part of the prison system. That's 2.7 percent of the total population, according to 2001 statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice. Projections are that 7.7 million men and women will have served time in prison by the end of this decade. In Georgia, June 2002 statistics from the Department of Corrections were just as startling: There are a total of 194,000 Georgia citizens either in state prisons or under state supervised probation or parole. The figure does not include probationers in misdemeanor cases, which would add another 200,000 people who could claim "prison experience." This year, Georgia's inmate population topped 50,000, even with a general decline in violent crimes. For every 336 prisoners released each week, 360 are added. The state DOC has a $916 million budget, down $40 million from last year. In a declining economy, the propensity to build more prison beds and fund chaplains and rehabilitative programs is just not there. In addition to what the national and state figures say about the violence and criminal tendencies of our society, it says even more about what taxpayers can expect in escalating costs to keep our criminal justice system running and pay for the re-socialization of its former inmates for decades to come. Georgia's mandatory get-tough sentences of the '90s for seven categories of serious crime will continue to swell the prison rolls. According to the state Office of Criminal Justice Research, inmates sentenced for violent crimes or sex offenses make up 57 percent of the state prison population, while property and drug offenders account for seven of every 20 probationers. A growing percentage of the inmates, probationers and parolees in Georgia are female: In the 1990-2000 decade alone, the percentage of female inmates in our state grew by 109 percent; the total females in the three categories grew by 39 percent. Prison beds are high cost accommodations, but no one wants to risk turning repeat violent offenders back onto the streets as was done with some early release programs undertaken back in the 1980s. Costly prison bed and services will have to limited to those type crimes and further development of less costly alternative sentencing, including community service, drug treatments and work release programs, will have to be developed and expanded. Either type of prison experience, however, limits the employability of and increases the social and emotional problems of the state's nearly 200,000 convicted felons. We pay for their experience. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens