Pubdate: Thu, 07 Apr 2005
Source: Shawnee News-Star (OK)
Copyright: 2005 The Shawnee News-Star
Contact:  http://www.onlineshawnee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/412
Author: Tim Talley, Oklahoma City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

SENTENCING REFORM GETS LITTLE SUPPORT

Sentencing reform proposals to reduce inmate populations at state
prisons have little support among lawmakers, who have rejected all but
one plan to broaden probationary sentences and expand alternatives to
prison.

The Oklahoma Sentencing Commission, a 15-member group of lawmakers,
criminal justice professionals and members of the public, handed down
eight recommendations last year to balance demands on the state's
prison system with the need for public safety.

But only one -- allowing intermediate sanctions instead of revocation
for some probation violators -- remains alive as the Legislature
reaches the halfway point in the 2005 legislative session.

"It's a challenge in this policy area," said K.C. Moon, director of
the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center, a research and analysis
group. "It's so popular to crack down on criminals and so unpopular to
reduce punishment."

The Senate, led by Republican opposition, killed a measure that would
have allowed offenders charged only with drug possession to be
presumptively sentenced to a drug court, community sentencing or probation.

The measure was based on a sentencing commission recommendation to
make treatment mandatory for drug offenders and to expand substance
abuse programs for the poor.

Gov. Brad Henry has proposed another $8 million for the state's
fledgling drug court program, which currently receives $3.2 million.
Henry's communications director, Paul Sund, said the new money would
expand the program from 900 offenders to about 3,000.

"That would basically open up more opportunities for probation, so the
courts would be assured these people would be treated on probation,"
Sund said.

A plan to streamline the parole process also died in the Senate. It
would have asked voters to strike the constitutional requirement that
the governor authorize parole release for nonviolent offenders. The
measure was pulled from the Senate's agenda before it came to a vote.

Oklahoma is the only state in the nation where the governor's
signature is required before a standard parole is approved. As such,
the governor serves as a backstop to Parole Board recommendations,
Sund said.

"It's just an incredibly time-consuming process," he said. Henry reads
every Parole Board file before he accepts or rejects a parole
recommendation, according to Sund.

The commission has focused on broadening probationary sentences,
easing the parole process and doing away with minimum mandatory
sentences for nonviolent offenses, especially drug offenses, to ease
the state's prison population.

"That's the only way you're going to reign in unfettered growth in the
prison population," Moon said.

Statistics compiled by OCJRC indicate the state is putting more people
in prison than ever before, driven largely by drug and alcohol
offenders. A total of 23,688 inmates were confined in state or private
prisons and county jails last week, according to the Department of
Corrections.

Prison costs have increased 193 percent, or $253 million, in the past
16 years.

The prison budget totals $383 million for the fiscal year that ends
June 30.

On Friday, Henry signed an $18 million supplemental appropriations
bill so the prison system could make it to the end of the year.

The state's inmate count has grown more than 100 percent over the past
16 years. Since 1995, prison receptions for drug crimes has increased
from 28 percent to 40 percent.

"We seem to use prison as the primary means of intervention," Moon
said. "It is frustrating to carry a torch for trying to rein in prison
growth. That's the only thing many say government should be spending
money on, to protect the public."

The director of the state's prison system, Ron Ward, said alternative
programs might divert some offenders from prison but that lawmakers
must still fund prison operations at adequate levels to preserve
security -- both inside state prisons and outside.

"My whole objective is to contain people who are in prison, make sure
they stay in prison," Ward said. "If we want to keep them in prison
and make sure they are secure from the public, there's a pricetag that
goes along with that."

It costs $42 a day, or more than $15,000 a year, to lock an inmate up
in a state prison, Ward said. Alternative sentencing plans like drug
court, which cost about $5,000 a year per defendant, can bring results
at a fraction of the cost.

"I'm not supportive of it for every person," Ward said. "There are
things like drug courts that work very well for those people who are
not necessarily a threat."

Meanwhile, state prisons suffer from a 21 percent vacancy rate in
staffing because of low pay and budgeting that is consistently below
authorized staffing levels.

State prisons are authorized for 2,553 correctional officers but only
1,973 are employed, officials said.

The corrections department has requested $423 million for the fiscal
year that begins July 1 to fully fund state prison operations.

"The ultimate goal is to ensure public safety," Ward said. "Our staff
do an outstanding job with limited resources. Having adequate staffing
on board is vital when it comes to the safety of the staff and the
public -- and even the inmates."
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MAP posted-by: Derek