New York's Prison Building Fever

The battle over prison construction is one of the remaining disputes holding
up New York State's budget.

Gov. George Pataki, trying to prove he can be tough on crime, had proposed to
build 7,000 new prison beds over three years at a cost of about $635 million.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says only 800 new beds are necessary. For
several reasons, the Speaker is more right than the Governor.

Mr. Pataki says more prison beds are needed to handle an increasing number
of violent offenders. But the jail population of New York City, which supplies
the majority of state prison inmates, has been declining, and 60 percent of
those sent to state prisons last year had been convicted of nonviolent crimes.

That would seem to justify reversing New York's expensive habit of building
more and more prisons. The state could use existing cells more effectively if
Mr. Pataki would push for reform of mandatory sentencing laws that force the
courts to imprison many nonviolent offenders who might be handled more
cheaply outside and to keep some offenders in prison much longer than
necessary.

Mr. Silver proposes that the state build only 800 new maximumsecurity beds
and supplement that with 800 new drug treatment beds to try to wean addicts
from their habit. That targets two specific areas of need more space for some
of the toughest inmates and treatment for those with serious drug problems.

Mr. Pataki seems more interested in grandstanding on the crime issue or
satisfying upstate legislators who see prisons as economic development
engines for their districts. By holding up the budget for a misguided response
to crime, Mr. Pataki does the state a double disservice, harming both the
budget and the criminal justice system.