Pubdate: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) Copyright: 2011 The Arizona Republic Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24 Author: Anjali Abraham Note: Anjali Abraham is public-policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) ARIZONA NEEDS TO ALTER VIEW OF INCARCERATION Members of the Arizona Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys came to a stark conclusion in a newly released report: Arizona is addicted to incarceration. And without serious intervention by policy makers on both sides of the aisle, fiscal insolvency is just around the corner. It's a message that comes from advocates who have been working in the trenches for the past decade to reform Arizona's bloated, inefficient and unjust prison system. According to a recent projection by the Arizona Department of Corrections, our state will need 8,500 new prison beds by 2017. It will cost $974 million just to build the new beds; operating costs will run well over $150 million per year. But there is something remarkable about these calls for reform. While they're still coming from traditional advocates, they're also coming from conservative icons such as Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich, who are pushing to cut both crime rates and costly incarceration rates. They are citing positive, state-driven reforms in states like South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas to prove that it is possible to save money and reduce prison populations without jeopardizing public safety. Arizona, though, seems intent on taking the exact opposite approach. We've seen our prison population triple over the past three decades. Yet, rather than using our projected $1.3 billion budget shortfall as an opportunity to seriously reconsider the wisdom of lengthy prison sentences for relatively low-level, non-violent crimes like drug possession, Gov. Jan Brewer wants to spend even more on corrections. As corrections costs soar, it is increasingly nonsensical to unnecessarily lock people up. This is particularly true in Arizona, where half of the prison population is composed of non-violent offenders. In her executive budget, the governor recommends increasing the Department of Corrections' budget by $8.4 million, while at the same time slashing $234 million from universities and community colleges. In addition, Brewer is hoping to ease the pinch on taxpayers' wallets, in part by instituting an inmate-visitor application fee. The governor believes that the fee will generate $2.3 million, which can help cover a mere portion of the cost of maintaining the state's 10 prison complexes. Punishing inmates by limiting contact to only those loved ones who can afford to pay a fee is unconstitutional and, more importantly, ignores the importance of family connections in successful rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates. Arizona continues to spend dwindling resources on "warehousing" rather than rehabilitating. But rehabilitation is a lower-cost alternative that conservative states like Mississippi and Texas have successfully implemented in recent years. According to an Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice report, taxpayers in Mississippi saved an estimated $200 million by rolling back truth-in-sentencing laws and restoring the possibility of parole for many people incarcerated for drug crimes. In Texas, they realized that they could save taxpayers millions and avoid the costs of building more prisons by expanding drug-treatment programs and reducing the number of repeat offenses resulting from drug crimes - without affecting public safety. Opponents of reform frequently invoke the need for public safety to frighten the public away from even basic correctional reforms. But the reform efforts in these other states prove that smart reforms go hand-in-hand with public safety. Our officials keep telling us that we are in fiscal dire straits. Some Arizona lawmakers have introduced bills that would lead to critical, prudent correctional reforms that could save us millions while promoting public safety and increased fairness. Obstruction-minded lawmakers, however, have vowed to stop these bills at the door. No discussion, no debate - nothing. Legislative leadership needs to let these bills move forward and get a meaningful debate. We can no longer ignore the real costs of our flawed incarceration system. Arizona just can't afford it. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake