PRISON OVERCROWDING PROBLEM WILL GET WORSE UNTIL LAWS CHANGE

There is no use trying to ignore the prison overcrowding problem. As
long as the courts sentence people to prisons, the state must shelter
them in a humane manner. North Carolina is running out of resources to
do it properly. The reason? The inmate population is growing faster
than new prisons can be built. When the state completes an expansion
effort in 2008, the state's prisons will have 400 too many inmates. By
2016, there will be 6,400 more inmates than beds.

Correction officials want to address the issue and are asking the
state to pay for a 10-year expansion project that would accommodate
about 7,650 inmates and cost the state about $260 million. The plan
would include expanding existing prisons and adding a new 1,000-bed
medium-security prison and 500-bed minimum-security prison.

But building more prisons is not enough. State lawmakers must also
focus on rehabilitating inmates and re-evaluating the policies that
are contributing to the explosion of our prison population.

They should revamp the 12-year-old structured sentencing laws that
took discretion away from judges and toughened penalties for certain
drug crimes and nonviolent repeat offenders. And they should look at
alternatives to dealing with offenders who may benefit from
interventions outside prisons. The purpose of prison is to isolate
dangerous people from the public. For everyone else, there are options
like community service, house arrest and intensive probation.

Too many nonviolent offenders are in prison and don't need to be. The
United States has the largest inmate population in the world, with
more than 2 million people in prisons and jails. Instead of being a
deterrent, prisons have become graduate courses in crime.

Overcrowding is inhumane to prisoners and dangerous for prison staff.
And it reduces the likelihood of rehabilitation.

Lawmakers don't like to revise laws in ways that reduce prison time,
which can be unpopular with voters. But they need to consider it.
Building new prisons alone won't solve the problem.