COSTLY LOCK-UPS

Estimates are that North Carolina prisons will be over capacity
through 2017. New approaches, not new cells, are needed

It may not be pleasant to think about, but prisons are a service that
the state simply has to provide. The public needs to be protected,
after all, and criminals need to be punished -- even though not every
crime should lead inexorably to the clink. A sound corrections policy
will accomplish these goals while also encouraging the rehabilitation
of criminals, when possible, so they become productive members of
society once they're released. State services also have to be
cost-effective. Tossing people in prison without careful consideration
as to who should be there, and for how long, fails more than inmates.
It fails their families. And it fails taxpayers, who pay the hefty tab
for feeding, clothing and housing a burgeoning prison population.

New projections by the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission
indicate that North Carolina has room for improvement when it comes to
deciding whom to incarcerate and under what conditions. The
commission, which by law must estimate annually the state's prison
capacity, said this month that by 2017, 46,801 men and women are
expected to be in prison, an increase of about 3,500 from this year.
The state's prisons will be over capacity for every year of the
period, the panel said. By 2017, the state will have 6,137 more
inmates than it has prison spaces. And those numbers assume that the
legislature won't complicate matters by making some sentences even
tougher.

It's not worth hoping that the commission has miscalculated. Its
numbers have been within 2 percent of the actual prison population
every year for the past decade. For example, it said the average
population in June 2007 would be 38,677. It was 38,668.

The space crunch comes despite the state having spent $32 million last
year on new prison facilities. The fact is, North Carolina won't be
able to spend its way out of a worsening situation. Tougher sentences
approved in the 1990s and in the first years of this decade provide a
steady stream of inmates. Structured sentencing, a system under which
inmates must serve nearly every day of their sentences, keeps prison
populations high. And North Carolina still hasn't shaken a warehouse
mentality when it comes to corrections. That means too few programs
that help inmates shake destructive habits. Many of those released
from prison are likely to come back. Correction officials need to be
aggressive in developing new programs that help inmates make the
transition to freedom, and stay free. That's particularly important
for younger inmates, and the legislature could cut prison projections
down in a stroke if it passed a bill that reasonably would funnel most
16- and 17-year-old offenders into juvenile centers rather than adult
prisons.

Prison shouldn't be the first choice when it comes to punishment for
non-violent drug and many victimless crimes. Other states, meanwhile,
are creating community corrections programs, which are cheaper, safer
for younger or vulnerable criminals and often more effective at
rehabilitation. Alternative punishment approaches are essential. And
as a means of controlling the amounts of money spent on prison
construction -- sums that easily can range into the hundreds of
millions -- they are approaches that taxpayers should welcome.