FLORIDA PRISON CHIEF OFFERS GOOD PLAN TO STOP CYCLE OF RECIDIVISM

It's ironic that Florida's prison system is called the Department of
Corrections, since there is very little correcting going on.

Florida has lacked the political will to provide serious money for
rehabilitation, including drug-abuse treatment programs, which might
break the cycle and reduce crime in our communities.

But DOC Secretary Walter McNeil envisions a new future, one that moves
the system beyond a singular focus of building massive prisons in
rural areas that need jobs.

McNeil wants Florida to provide treatment programs for inmates close
to being released. Even more groundbreaking, he wants to create a
state jail system for nonviolent offenders serving sentences of less
than 18 months.

The jails would be built across the state, close to urban areas where
most inmates' families live. McNeil says such facilities could reduce
average operating costs, since a smaller number of corrections
officers could manage this population.

The proposal marries well with the state's growing network of road and
work camps - the small dorm-like facilities secured with gates and
barbed wire that last year added 10,200 beds to the system. One such
camp is located on Ullmerton Road in Pinellas County, though passing
motorists would never know it was there. Its inmates provide valuable
work to local governments.

With the prison population growing at an alarming clip, McNeil is
right to find alternatives to building more prisons. The state's $2
billion-a-year system, which now houses 98,000 inmates, is expected to
need 125,000 beds by 2012.

It's also good to see McNeil demonstrating the political courage
needed to obtain rehabilitation for criminals nearing their release.
For while prison populations have soared, politicians have cut back on
rehabilitation to appear tough on crime. Yet insiders know that
keeping inmates busy in treatment and educational programs can make
prisons safer and lower recidivism.

About two-thirds of inmates have significant drug and alcohol
problems, according to a 2007 report by the state's Office of Program
Policy Analysis. Another 60 percent are illiterate.

Yet only about one in 10 are given access to treatment or educational
services.

The lack of behavior-modification programs is a big reason why 13,000
inmates re-enter Florida prisons each year, costing taxpayers $300
million to house them.

Yet programs that could help them stay out of prison would cost just
$30 million, McNeil says.

The choice should be an easy call for Florida. It's far better to save
hundreds of millions of dollars and the consequences of crime than to
continue a practice that leads to recidivism and makes our communities
less safe.

The question for the Florida Legislature is whether it will have the
political will to wean itself off the big prisons it loves to build.