FISCAL PRESSURES LEAD SOME STATES TO FREE INMATES EARLY

NEW YORK -- Reversing decades of tough-on-crime policies, including
mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug offenders, many
cash-strapped states are embracing a view once dismissed as
dangerously naive: It costs far less to let some felons go free than
to keep them locked up.

It is a theory that has long been pushed by criminal justice
advocates and liberal politicians -- that some felons, particularly
those convicted of minor drug offenses, would be better served by
treatment, parole or early release for good behavior. But the states'
conversion to that view has less to do with a change of heart on
crime than with stark fiscal realities. At a time of shrinking
resources, prisons are eating up an increasing share of many state budgets.

"It's the fiscal stuff that's driving it," said Marc Mauer, executive
director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that
advocates for more lenient sentencing. "Do you want to build prisons
or do you want to build colleges? If you're a governor, it's kind of
come to that choice right now."

Mauer and other observers point to a number of recent actions, some
from states facing huge budget shortfalls, some not, but still
worried about exploding costs.

. To ease the overcrowding and save California about $1.1 billion
over two years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has proposed freeing
about 22,000 prisoners convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual offenses 20
months earlier than their scheduled release dates. He also wants to
place them on unsupervised parole, saving the state the cost of
having all parolees assigned to an agent.

. Lawmakers in Providence, R.I., approved an expansion last week of
the state's "good time" early-release rules to cover more inmates
serving shorter sentences. The new rules, which will put more inmates
under post-prison supervision, are expected to save Rhode Island an
estimated $8 billion over five years.

. In Kentucky, where 22,000 state inmates are housed in county
prisons and private facilities, lawmakers agreed to allow certain
nonviolent, nonsexual offenders to serve up to 180 days of their
sentences at home, and to make it easier for prisoners to earn credit
for good behavior. The move could save the state, which is facing a
$900 million deficit over the next two years, as much as $30 million.

. In Mississippi, where the prison population has doubled during the
past dozen years to 22,600, Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has signed into
law two measures that will reduce it: One to let certain nonviolent
offenders go free after serving 25 percent of their sentences, and
the other to release some terminally ill inmates.

. South Carolina, meanwhile, is looking to abolish parole, in part to
slow the growth of its prison population since there would be fewer
people returned to prison for parole violations.

Proposals to free prisoners are still met with opposition,
particularly from law enforcement officials who fear that a flood of
released felons could return to their communities, and from victims
groups that worry that justice is being sacrificed for budgetary concerns.

The California plan has drawn criticism from the Legislative
Analyst's Office, the state's nonpartisan fiscal adviser, which
warned that 63,000 mid-level offenders would "effectively go
unpunished, serving little or no prison time" and would not have
active supervision.

The proposal also worries local governments and police in California,
particularly in Los Angeles County -- home to the nation's largest
prison system, which supplies about a third of the state's prison
population. "It's kind of like the volcano has erupted," County
Sheriff Lee Baca said. "To let out 63,000 prisoners on summary parole
- -- which means no parole -- is not good policy."

Bob Pack, 52, of Danville, Calif., is particularly disturbed by the
prospect of softer punishment forthose convicted of drunken driving.
In 2003, Pack's two children -- Troy, 10, and Alana, 7 -- were struck
and killed when a drunk driver's car jumped a curb and ran onto a
neighborhood sidewalk. The driver had three prior drunken-driving convictions.

Said Pack: "I guarantee you that if this program is fulfilled,
somewhere down the road -- it could be three months or a year --
there's going to be a family in court over the death of a loved one,
because of someone who got out early."

But for now, state officials are finding themselves under mounting
pressure to cut costs and are looking at their rising prison population.

Between 1987 and last year, states increased their higher education
spending by 21 percent, in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to
the Pew Center on the States. During the same period, spending on
corrections jumped by 127 percent.

In the Northeastern states, according to the Pew report, prison
spending over the past 20 years has risen 61 percent, while higher
education spending has declined by 5.5 percent.

California -- which has the country's worst fiscal crisis, with a
potential shortfall of $20 billion -- has seen its prison-related
spending swell to $10.4 billion for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. About
170,000 inmates are packed into California's 33 prisons, which were
designed to hold 100,000. About 15,000 prisoners are being housed in
emergency beds, in converted classrooms and gymnasiums.

Rhode Island's prison population peaked and its 4,000-inmate prison
capacity was exceeded in recent years, prompting a lawsuit and a
court settlement. "The soaring inmate census has created a crisis
here," said Ashbel T. Wall, the state's corrections director. "We've
been busting the budget continuously. . . . Our prisons have been packed."

New Jersey is one state making changes out of a desire for more
efficiency. Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D) is proposing legislation to
expand drug courts to channel more nonviolent, first-time drug
offenders into treatment instead of prisons, and also to expand
supervised parole. Another proposal would change the parole policy so
parolees were not automatically returned to prison for minor drug
offenses, said Lilo Stainton, the governor's spokeswoman.

She said that in New Jersey's case, the changes are not
budget-driven. "We think this is a more humane and sensible way to
treat people," she said.

Michigan is grappling with a massive prison population, mainly
because "truth in sentencing" rules make the state less generous
about granting paroles. Michigan's incarceration rate is 47 percent
higher than that of the other Great Lakes states, according to experts.

Michigan has become one of the few states that actually spend more on
prisons than on higher education -- about $2 billion for prisons, and
$1.9 billion in state aid to its 15 public universities and 28
community colleges. "It's insane," said Barbara Levine of the
Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending in Lansing. "The
governor is always talking about how we need to be high tech. But
these days, the best career opportunity is to get a job as a prison guard."

In fact, according to Thomas Clay, a prisons and budget expert with
Michigan's nonprofit Citizens Research Council, the state government
employed 70,000 people in 1980, including 5,000 working for the
prisons system. Today, the number of state workers has dropped to
54,000, but 17,000 work for the prisons.

"You've got two decades of failed policies," said Laura Sager a
consultant in Michigan for Families Against Mandatory Minimums. She
said mandatory sentencing laws and tough penalties for drug offenses
in the 1980s "bloated prisons and prison populations, and the
taxpayer is paying a very high price."

Now with states struggling with budget deficits, she said, "you have
pressures that make it palatable to take a second look."