PRISON ALTERNATIVES' VALUE UNDER SCRUTINY

Advocates of alternative sentencing programs for criminals say their
programs lower the inmate population, help people to avoid prison and give
them a new start. But several of the alternative programs may face
elimination in the legislature this year.

Supporters of the programs point to people such as Jessie Battle, who sold
drugs to an undercover agent in 1994 and was facing eight years in prison
after being indicted in Cumberland County as a habitual felon.

Through Sentencing Services -- a statewide program that offers an
alternative to prison for low-level criminal offenders -- Battle did not go
to prison.

Now he is director of the men's program at TROSA, Triangle Residential
Options for Substance Abuse, in Durham, where he oversees the daily lives
and therapeutic functions for more than 250 men recovering from substance
abuse.

"I see the benefits of the program every day," Battle said about Sentencing
Services.

But critics say the state can no longer afford it.

Sentencing Services, they say, has outlived its usefulness and has been
eclipsed by structured sentencing, a progressive system that sets out
specific penalties, such as probation, for certain crimes. Its goal is to
make sure that punishments fit crimes.

"How many [Sentencing Services] plans are accepted by judges? How many
plans changed a judge's mind?" asked Greg Stahl, senior deputy director of
the state's Administrative Office of the Courts.

"There are 114,000 people on probation," Stahl added. "[Sentencing
Services] is only touching a small number of people each year. I don't
think they are having the impact to justify the costs."

A joint committee consisting of House and Senate members has submitted a
proposal that calls for more than $63 million in cuts from the budget for
Justice and Public Safety proposed by Gov. Mike Easley for the new fiscal year.

The proposal offers a high mark for the potential cuts that could total $74
million.

"Nobody ever wants to see their budget cut," said Sen. Scott Thomas, a New
Bern Democrat and a member of the joint committee. "If you have a deficit,
you have to make cuts. If you look through the options, you'll see that
hardly any agency is left untouched."

Called A Money-Saver

The possibility of a cut has advocates for Sentencing Services scrambling
for supporters.

"We are talking with legislators about what we're doing and how we save the
state money," said Susan Brooks, director of Indigent Defense Services,
which monitors Sentencing Services.

Sentencing Services -- after enduring a 40 percent cut four years ago --
has an annual budget of about $3.9 million. Last year, the program produced
1,832 treatment plans for nonviolent offenders at about $1,900 per plan.

Supporters say that's a bargain. By comparison, it costs about $24,000 a
year to house an inmate and $4,000 for intensive probation, which means
Sentencing Services, by conservative estimates, saves the Department of
Correction more than $10 million a year, Brooks said.

Legislators say they are starting to hear from their constituents and
supporters about other proposed cuts.

"I've heard from the district attorney investigators," said Rep. Carolyn K.
Justus, a Hendersonville Republican, about a proposed $1.3 million cut to
state prosecutors' budget. "I've heard from the Mediation Center and
Project Challenge."

Justus urged advocates to remain calm about the proposed cuts, noting that
neither the House nor the Senate has passed a budget bill.

"What's being passed around now probably won't be in the final budget,"
said Justus.

However, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, a Carrboro Democrat, was sounding the alarm
last week about the proposed cuts.

"Sentencing Services saves the state something like $12 million to $20
million a year by diverting people from prison. We'll have to build a bunch
of more prisons," Kinnaird said.

Kinnaird is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Justice and
Public Safety subcommittee.

The call for deeper cuts and program eliminations is the result of a
recurring budget shortfall that began with a national recession in late 2000.

Apart from the proposed cuts in the governor's budget, the Department of
Correction's plan to build six new prisons over the next decade was
untouched by the subcommittee recommendations. According to a joint
appropriations committee's projections, five of the new 1,000-bed prisons
will cost at least $80 million each to build, which surpasses the $74
million in cuts recommended by the joint committee.

That puzzled prison alternative advocates.

"I have heard it called a cottage industry," Brooks said. "It's very
popular to be seen as tough on crime, but if you're seen as tough on crime
in that sense, then you don't address the root causes."

(News researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this report.)