REFORM SENTENCES FOR DRUG OFFENSES

My friends at the Indepence Institute, the local outpost of the vast
right-wing conspiracy, have seen their share of disappointment.

They suffered a stinging rebuff in 2004 when area voters approved the
Regional Transportation District's FasTracks plan. Worse followed in
2005, when voters spurned pleas to drown state government in a bath
tub and passed Referendum C.

The latest blow came last November, when voters, for the first time
since 1958, gave Democrats control of the governor's office and both
chambers of the legislature.

After a decade of conservative dominance in Colorado, that's a lot of
defeat. So why did the institute's chief, Jon Caldara, look so happy
at the Capitol last week?

At first, I figured Caldara, whose bald head and spiked beard give
him a passing resemblance to Vladimir Lenin, was just trying to pass
for a leftie among all the new Democratic legislators and staffers.

Then I remembered the most powerful lawmaker under the gold dome, the
speaker of the House, just hates Lenin. (The speaker is, after all, a
Romanoff.)

It turned out that Caldara was meeting with members of Families
Against Mandatory Minimums to advance the one aspect of his crusade
for smaller government - reforming our drug laws - likely to appeal
to liberal legislators.

The free-market mavens have long decried Colorado's passion for
locking up non-violent criminals. Mike Krause's 2005 report, "Getting
Smart on Crime: Time to reform Colorado's drug offense sentencing
policies," is must reading for fiscal conservatives and civil
libertarians alike. It's available at www.IndependenceInstitute.org

Caldara realizes the new order at the Capitol is a golden opportunity
to reform our drug laws. Democratic lawmakers may be less strident
than Republicans were in touting "lock 'em up and throw away the key"
policies. And Gov. Bill Ritter may not be wedded to the "peanut
policy" toward prisons that Republican Bill Owens championed.

What's a "peanut policy?" Well, nobody can stop with eating just one
peanut, and Colorado can't stop with building just one prison. The
state has built 16 prisons since 1990, one a year, like clockwork.

The state now has about 18,300 men and 2,100 women in prison, and
their ranks are rising much faster than our population. Corrections
officials estimate we'll need to build a new 800-bed prison each year
into the indefinite future just to warehouse all the new inmates. It
costs taxpayers about $26,082 a year for each man in prison and
$27,900 per female inmate.

Yet, in his final budget message, Owens urged an 8.7 percent hike in
the upcoming budget for prisons compared to just 7.2 percent for
higher education. Owens warned the legislators not to trim his
proposed increase in prison funding by reforming any of the state's
sometimes draconian mandatory minimum-sentencing laws.

That's nonsense. Instead of expanding the Colorado Gulag, fiscal
conservatism and human decency alike cry out for a review of our
sentencing laws, especially for drug-related offenses. It's time to
put more emphasis on rehabilitation and treatment and less on incarceration.

Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, and Rep. Lynn Hefley, R-Colorado Springs,
did just that in 2003 with Senate Bill 318. The bill slightly
shortened sentences for possession of one gram or less of certain
drugs and used the savings to treat prisoners with substance-abuse problems.

We need more such sensible alternatives to our prison mania. And
remember that Ritter, as Denver DA, pioneered the drug court approach
that substituted tough-love treatment programs for pitiless
imprisonment - saving money for taxpayers and turning many young lives around.

I think he'd be glad to sign a responsible sentencing reform - even
if it does make Jon Caldara happy in the process.