Pubdate: Wed, 03 Dec 2003
Source: Huntsville Times (AL)
Copyright: 2003 The Huntsville Times
Contact:  http://www.htimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/730

A LOGICAL PRISON POLICY

Alabama Should Have Been Paroling More Offenders All Along

It took a fiscal crisis to make it happen, but Alabama is on the verge of 
dealing with criminals in a logical manner.

A new four-member panel has doubled the state's ability to hold hearings on 
whether to release nonviolent offenders. The idea is that prison beds 
should be reserved for those who offer a clear and present danger to society.

The new panel won't accomplish that totally. Alabama, after all, has tried 
to hold twice the number of inmates that its prison system can safely hold. 
But it's a major first step in aligning common sense with rehabilitation 
and public protection.

Politicians, in Alabama and elsewhere, for years have tried to parlay 
stringent prison sentences and inadequate funding for correctional 
institutions into votes. It made no sense, but it was an easy emotional sell.

Unfortunately - or, more correctly, fortunately - the federal courts won't 
allow the state to continue overcrowded and otherwise and unsafe 
punishment. So emergency measures are under way to reduce the prison 
population.

To that end, the new panel has been placing on parole those people whose 
crimes may not in all cases merit the the long prison terms they were 
given. That makes sense, but it isn't the total answer. Many of the 
prisoners most eligible for parole are in the work-release program. But 
work-release prisoners are housed in centers, not prisons, so paroling them 
doesn't free up more beds for violent offenders.

In a logical system, corrections officials would be able to put violent 
people behind bars and use programs such as house arrest and close 
monitoring to make lawbreakers better citizens.

In other words, what the revamped parole system is doing now is what the 
state should have been doing all along - along with enough money to pay for 
alternative punishment, which is less expensive than housing and feeding 
people in prison cells.

The threat of a federal takeover of the state's prison system has pushed 
state leaders toward action that political leaders have been afraid to 
undertake. By itself, the increased paroles won't be enough. But they can 
be part of a more sensible penal system.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman