SEEK ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS

Tennessee must continue to look for the smartest ways to address prisons;
discussions in Nashville last week should foster that goal.

Criminal justice officials from across the state met for four days in a
Criminal Justice Summit to discuss ways to streamline and improve the
system. The summit produced a list of alternative approaches to
incarceration that is worthy of the state's attention.

The proposals include establishing more reporting centers for parolees,
building partnerships between government and community agencies and
implementing more drug courts. Authorities are also looking at using
tracking systems on parolees, as opposed to keeping them under lock and key.

Some of those ideas were discussed prior to the summit by state
Commissioner of Correction Quenton White, who has emphasized approaches
such as alternative sentencing and rehabilitation as a way to hold down the
state's prison population.

White emphasized that public safety is the most important concern. The
public needs to see that prison officials will not waver on that
commitment. But just locking up offenders makes no sense if there are more
productive approaches.

White points to the escalating costs of providing more prison beds. While
holding down costs will get the attention of many Tennesseans, some of the
issues White and his colleagues are raising are important in ways beyond
dollars and cents.

The state spent $480 million this year to house 22,000 inmates. If a person
is in trouble with an addiction, it makes more sense to get that person off
the addiction than to let lock-up be the answer. It makes more sense to
monitor nonviolent offenders who could be out and productive than to keep
them in one place.

The summit in Nashville should help communication between various agencies
in the state. If nothing else, it should stir even more discussion among
those who attended and their colleagues. White is right to call attention
to alternative approaches in criminal justice. The summit was the first of
its kind in the state, but it shouldn't be the last.