BASNIGHT RESISTS NEW PRISONS

RALEIGH -- The Senate's top leader says the state should find ways to
sentence non violent criminals to house arrest as part of an effort to
avoid building more prisons.

Sen. Marc Basnight, a Dare County Democrat, was speaking to a room
full of police officers, court officials, community activists and
mayors visiting the legislature on Tuesday.

"We have proposals before us to build two more prisons," said
Basnight, who allowed that he and other senators "despise this thought."

Instead of building more prisons, Basnight said he hoped the state
could find alternate ways to punish offenders, reserving incarceration
for violent and habitual criminals.

After his talk with the law enforcement group, Basnight said the idea
was first pitched to him by a customer at his Manteo restaurant.

"When we think of the economy and costs and needing space for violent
offenders, you'd think we'd prioritize," Basnight said. "If a person
can stay at home at a savings of dollars and open up a bed for a
violent person, the community would do better by that."

He said some of the cost savings should then be used for education and
helping the prisoner find work. No bill has been drafted concerning
this idea, but Basnight said he has asked "a team of people" to look
at the concept.

Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and his party's leader in the
Senate, said whether someone is violent or nonviolent should not be
the dividing line between who is sentenced to prison and who is not.

"A drug manufacturer could be classified as a non violent offender but
would be someone I think needs to be locked away," Berger said.

He said that judges already have discretion to sentence those
convicted of lesser crimes to alternative programs. The state, he
said, needs to invest more in district attorneys, other court
officials and prisons to ensure those criminals can be prosecuted and
punished.

"We need to prioritize our spending, and the first priority we fund
needs to be protecting the public," Berger said.

That was a starkly different message than either Basnight or House
Speaker Joe Hackney shared with a decidedly law-and-order-focused
crowd. Both of the legislature's top leaders stressed education as a
top priority for the General Assembly, despite talking to a group that
had come to express frustration with what it says is a backlog in the
court system.

"At some point, the needs of the court system are tested against the
needs of education, Medicaid and the other focuses of government,"
Hackney told the crowd.

He said that good schools would help cut down on law enforcement's
workload by helping children stay out of trouble.

"If we can get them engaged and trained for a meaningful occupation
that is fulfilling, that has an impact on you all as well," Hackney
said.

Although briefings on the state budget have already begun, lawmakers
will begin building the $19 billion tax and spending plan in earnest
later this spring.