ONE LAST DAY TO HELP PRISONS

This week, a new task force began tackling an old problem: prison crowding.

Gov. Bob Riley's 11-member prison task force met for the first time
Tuesday, and was told the state is desperate for long-term plans to relieve
crowding. Task force members should be under no illusion their task is
anything other than daunting.

State prisons are dangerously overcrowded. The nearly 28,000 prisoners in
state lockups are twice what the prisons were built to hold.

And the trend is heading in the wrong direction. Stepped-up paroles two
years ago lowered the prison population to 26,465, but the number of
prisoners has since increased by more than 1,000.

Neither will task force members have an unlimited budget to work with.
Prison dollars are tight, and there's little prospect for a significant
increase in prison spending, even though we spend only about half the
national average per inmate on our prisons and the number of prison guards
is dangerously low.

Perhaps the biggest help the task force can expect for prison crowding is
proposed changes in the way the state sentences offenders. A package of
sentencing reform bills was put together over several years by the Alabama
Sentencing Commission, and eight of them have passed the House and need
only Senate approval.

But there's only one day left in the legislative session, Monday, which
means senators must approve the bills then. It would be a disgrace if they
don't.

In the package are bills that would adopt voluntary sentencing guidelines
for some 26 felony offenses, allow the parole board to release terminally
ill, incapacitated and geriatric inmates, and give judges leeway in dealing
with offenders who violate terms of their split sentences.

The bills could have a substantial impact on the prison population by
making it more likely that those who ought to be in prison will be sent
there but those who can repay their debts to society outside of prison
won't take up costly prison space. The bills would go a long way toward
making sentences more fair and consistent.

They also would be instrumental in the task force meeting the charge Gov.
Riley gave to it: to find ways to ease prison crowding that emphasize
prevention, justice and rehabilitation and ensure public safety.

Senators shouldn't let the governor, task force and the people of Alabama down.