N.C.'S LOOMING PRISON CRISIS REQUIRES A MEASURED RESPONSE

North Carolina, having dealt with a prison crisis for nearly two
decades, is in the process of finishing a prison-building boom.

And now faces another prison crisis. We trust this one will be dealt
with like the last one: With common sense and an eye on the burden to
taxpayers.

Prison system projections, which historically have a high degree of
accuracy, show the system will run beyond capacity for the foreseeable
future and will be 6,000 beds short by 2017.

Solutions to that problem should include a hard look at sentences for
nonviolent offenders, a bit of self-restraint in the General Assembly
to push laws that make legislators look tough on crime but add only
extra burden to the justice system and yes, more prisons.

We'll never reach a utopian paradise where there is no need for
prisons. There will always be people who cannot function in society
without harming others. Advertisement Logic, not emotion However, the
impulse toward volume of justice, not quality of justice, should be
avoided.

There's an old saying that when your only tool is a hammer, every
problem looks like a nail. Prisons should not become the hammer of our
day, a dumping ground for not just dangerous criminals but petty
criminals as well.

If North Carolina's track record holds, that temptation will be
avoided. Facing a similar crunch nearly two decades ago, The
Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission Act of 1990 set up a group
to examine the state's practices. It was able to help formulate
recommendations that led to longer terms for felony offenders, a
closer relationship between sentences given and time served and
alternative punishment for those who didn't need to be incarcerated.
Along the way, crime rates dropped 21 percent from 1995 to 2004, and
violent crime dropped 31 percent.

While it's worth noting that those numbers mirrored national trends
and can be attributed to a number of factors, it's also worth noting
that if North Carolina's reforms had not taken place, the prison
population today would be 54,000 or more instead of the current
39,000. At an average cost of around $25,000 a year, that's a
considerable savings to taxpayers.

Additional savings are obvious when looking at the cost of prisons --
$28 million for a 500-bed minimum security prison, $63 million for a
500-bed medium-security prison and $90 million for a 1,000-bed maximum
security facility. Burgeoning population Sheer demographics alone may
be cause for new prison construction. North Carolina had 6.63 million
citizens in 1990, and is now closing in on 10 million. The likelihood
of all the new additions being model citizens is, shall we say, remote.

Additional prison beds will almost certainly be necessary. But this
shouldn't be a growth industry.

Lawmakers pushing popular new laws against crimes like child
pornography or gang activity need to eye where pressure could be
relieved on the system.

That may call for a hard look at drug laws, which have caused a
shocking jump in incarceration in this nation over the last three decades.

Prior to 1980, the U.S. prison population had held generally steady
for around 50 years.

Law-and-order one-upmanship in the political arena resulted in
punitive new laws, particularly regarding drugs, that caused the
prison population to double in the 1980s and again in the 1990s and
continue to grow this decade.

As a result, America, with 5 percent of the world's population, has a
quarter of its inmates.

As the drug war cruises along on autopilot, more people are now
arrested on marijuana charges alone annually in the U.S. than arrested
for all crimes in Western Europe. In an effort to protect society,
lasting damage may have been done to large segments of society.

It's not coincidental that in 1980 there were 463,000 African-American
males in college and 143,000 in prison, whereas by 2000 those numbers
were flipped, with 603,000 in college and nearly 800,000 in prison.
And it's not coincidental that nearly one in 30 Americans is now in
prison or jail or on probation or parole.

In dealing with the current prison crisis, we need a careful
examination of current laws to ensure we're not planting the seeds of
the next prison crisis. In an era when agencies across the board, from
education to mental health to services for the young and elderly, are
competing for scarce taxpayer dollars, we need to make sure those
dollars are spent wisely.

That applies to prisons and the justice system as it does everything
else. We hope North Carolina will show the same common sense it has in
the past in dealing with this issue.