Pubdate: Mon, 20 Feb 2006
Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2006 The Gadsden Times
Contact:  http://www.gadsdentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203
Author: Samira Jafari, Associated Press

HABITUAL OFFENDER LAW FILLING PRISONS

MONTGOMERY - Nearly a third of the inmates serving time in Alabama's 
overcrowded prisons were sentenced under the state's habitual 
offender law, deemed one of the harshest in the nation by sentencing experts.

Unlike most states, Alabama's repeat offender law - often known as 
the three-strikes-and-you're-out law - does not figure in the length 
of time between convictions or the severity of prior offenses.

More than half of the nearly 8,600 habitual offenders were given 
tougher or "enhanced" sentences after their latest conviction was for 
property or drug crimes, according to the Alabama Sentencing 
Commission's preliminary 2006 report. That doesn't mean they didn't 
commit a violent crime in the past; but in most cases the law doesn't 
give any weight to the prior offense.

"Alabama does have one of the most stringent habitual felony offender 
acts," said Lynda Flynt, executive director of the Alabama Sentencing 
Commission.

Tomislav Kovandzic, a criminal justice professor at the University of 
Alabama at Birmingham, said this has created a problem in corrections.

The habitual offender laws in general don't cut down on crime but do 
result in prison systems that are "busting at the seams" and 
increasingly demand larger chunks of state budgets, he said.

The majority of states that have such laws introduced them in the 
1980s and 1990s, when the nation adopted a "tough on crime" motto, he said.

"These laws don't do anything in reducing crime," said Kovandzic, who 
has researched three-strikes laws.

"They're keeping people in prison and they're seeing the 
repercussions in an aging prison system that's costing them a fortune."

Habitual offenders are inherently one of the most expensive 
populations in Alabama's prison system due to the population aging 
over lengthy or lifelong sentences. They cost the prison system $112 
million dollars a year - or 36 percent of the fiscal 2006 budget. 
That takes a toll on the underfunded, understaffed, dated prison 
system that's at double designed capacity with more than 27,000 inmates.

"We can be as tough on crime as we're willing to pay for," said 
professor Greg Weaver, director of the sociology, criminology and 
criminal justice programs at Auburn University. "That's part of the 
politics of the matter."

Kovandzic agreed. "It's not politically feasible to say 'OK, we're 
going to let everyone out,"' he said.

The chairman of the Joint Prisons Committee, Sen. Myron Penn, D-Union 
Springs, said habitual offender laws are popular because people want 
to feel comfortable about convicts being kept off the streets and 
politicians want to preserve their tough stance on crime. But, he 
added, the number of inmates coming in eventually outpaces the number 
going out.

"It's easy to have the hard-core image of locking them up and 
throwing away the key," Penn said. "But it is costly to the overall 
problem for overcrowding."

Alabama is among 16 states that provide for life imprisonment upon 
conviction for one prior felony, according to a 2005 state-by-state 
comparison of habitual offender laws by the Alabama Sentencing 
Commission. For example, a person with two forgery convictions can be 
sentenced to life in prison.

"If you have three nonviolent crimes, you could still get the same 
sentence as someone who has committed three violent crimes," said 
Brian Corbett, spokesman for the prison system.

For example, a convict with prior convictions for manslaughter and 
rape may still get the same sentence as a three-time forgery convict.

"To me, that's not fair," Flynt said.

If the most recent crime is a Class A felony, such as murder, 
kidnapping or first-degree rape, the previous crimes are reviewed in 
determining any "enhanced" sentence. But in all other cases, the 
severity of the earlier crimes is not considered.

Alabama also has the highest "range of enhancement," allowing judges 
to add an additional 15-99 years or life imprisonment to a repeat 
offender's sentence. South Carolina has the lowest range, with 1-5 years.

Kovandzic said giving judges more discretion is not necessarily a bad 
thing, because it still gives them the option to add fewer years when 
determining enhanced sentences for nonviolent crimes.

Eleven states, not including Alabama, have habitual felony offender 
laws only for certain crimes. Those states, including Southern states 
Tennessee and Virginia, take into account whether the previous 
felonies were violent crimes, such as sexual assault, armed robbery 
and aggravated kidnapping.
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