Pubdate: Sun, 6 Apr 2008
Source: Shelby Star, The (NC)
Copyright: 2008 The Shelby Star
Contact:  http://www.shelbystar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1722

MAKING MORE ROOM IN PRISONS

THE ISSUE Prison budgets

Points of Debate

The Department of Correction web page shows that over the past year, 
13,913 men and women have been sent to prison for non-violent crimes, 
such as worthless checks, DWI, traffic violations, habitual felons 
and drug charges

The Star's View

We'd Like to See Lawmakers Start Moving Away From Throwing People in 
Prison for Non-Violent Crimes

Word comes down that legislatures across America are considering ways 
to save dollars on their prison budget as the economic slowdown 
starts affecting revenue figures in state capitals. They're 
considering alternative sentencing methods as a way to free up 
millions of dollars in spending. While one's first hunch might be to 
not be surprised that prisons might get shortchanged when money gets 
tight, we can also look at this as an opportunity for states, 
including North Carolina, to change the way that they decide who is 
going to prison.

We'd like to see the General Assembly rethink its recent trend of 
increasingly adding active sentence time to a lot of crimes. And, in 
particular, we'd like to see lawmakers start moving away from 
throwing people in prison for non-violent crimes.

A quick scan of the Department of Correction web page shows that 
39,100 people are incarcerated in North Carolina's prisons. A check 
on the web site also reveals that over the past year, more than 5,989 
men and women were incarcerated for drug charges.

Add to that other non-violent crimes, such as worthless checks, DWI, 
other traffic violations and habitual felons, and you get 13,913 who 
have been sent to prison for non-violent crimes. That doesn't even 
include property crimes and other non-violent offenses such as 
forgery and fraud. Just recently, we learned of concerns that 
legislators had about increasing penalties for people who commit 
crimes as a result of gang-related activity. Such proposals would 
require the state to build space to house an estimated 385 more 
inmates at a cost of $26.2 million. It would cost between $5 million 
and $11.9 million a year to house those inmates. If instead, we'd 
change our sentencing code so that fewer non-violent offenders 
weren't put in prison, we wouldn't even need to build more prisons to 
house them.

We're all for making those who violate our freedoms and commit 
offenses against us pay for our crimes. That's especially true of 
those who commit violent crimes.

North Carolina can set a new trend by taking the lead in changing 
prison sentencing policy so that people who don't pose a threat to 
society aren't incarcerated. That would leave plenty of room in 
prison for those who do. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake