WEIGH RISING COSTS OF LONG SENTENCES

Look At Alternatives To Building Prison

Iowa legislators think long and hard before spending additional money
on public schools and universities or cleanup of lakes and rivers.
But when it comes to prisons, well, that's another story. Sky's the
limit. No amount will be spared. Even if that means building new
prisons that add nothing to the state's economy, quality of life or
public safety.

Case in point: At the current rate of growth in sex offenders being
sentenced to prison, the state will need to build a 750-bed prison
within the next decade at an estimated cost of $50 million, a report
last week to the Iowa Board of Corrections projected. The price tag
for construction, however, is only the beginning: It costs an
estimated $28 million a year to run a prison that size. Figure on
those being minimum numbers.

To put those numbers in perspective, the Legislature this year was
barely able to scrape together similar amounts for schools ($35
million for teacher-salary increases and $15 million for pre-schools)
and water quality ($18 million). It took lawmakers the entire
session, much of it spent in caucuses or negotiations behind closed
doors, to reach a fragile consensus on that spending. Those who
wanted more money for education or the environment were told the
state couldn't afford it.

Don't look for similar angst when it comes to building and staffing
larger prisons, however.

Lawmakers have themselves to blame, of course. They have pushed the
"tough on crime" button every opportunity they get, especially in
election years.

This has been especially true in recent years with sex offenders. The
net effect is that this crackdown will, by 2015, add more than 700
inmates to the 1,100 inmates now serving time in state prisons for
sex crimes, according to corrections officials. This mad rush to
toughen laws, lengthen sentences and fill prisons to house growing
numbers of sex offenders might make sense if there were a shred of
evidence that time in prison has any curative effect on the offender.
But there is no such evidence.

The evidence that seems of most interest to politicians is the
connection between tougher criminal penalties and election returns.
Unfortunately, it is taxpayers who pay the growing bill and suffer
the failure of the state to adequately pay for public services that
actually make a difference in people's lives.

Before Iowa considers building any more prisons, it should take a
comprehensive look at the entire corrections system to objectively
assess facility needs. That study should include alternatives to
prison that are cheaper and, in many cases, more effective in
changing lives and protecting the public.