STOP THE REVOLVING DOOR

Early Parolees Not Returning To Prison In Huge Numbers

With Alabama's prison system underfunded, overcrowded and stressed to the
max, good news is hard to come by. But there is some good news -
surprisingly good.

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles reports that in the year since it
started special "dockets" to give early release to prisoners to help
relieve prison overcrowding, only 4 percent of the prisoners released have
returned to prison for new crimes or parole violations.

That's a remarkable statistic. Consider that in California, 70 percent of
the state's parolees reoffend within 18 months of being released, more than
twice the national average. In Alabama, in a typical year, 22 percent to 25
percent of parolees overall return to prison.

Yet, of the 3,637 nonviolent offenders given early release over the past
year, only 155 have returned to prison. One factor may be that these are
nonviolent offenders, most serving time for drug use convictions. Drug
traffickers or those convicted of the most serious felonies are not allowed
to be considered for early release in the special dockets.

While some district attorneys, including Jefferson County's David Barber,
complain that the early releases are hardly a deterrent, it's pretty clear
that with only 4 percent of the special parolees returning to prison,
something is going right.

Many nonviolent offenders who wind up in prison in Alabama likely would be
in community or alternative programs in some other states. But Alabama
doesn't have many community programs for nonviolent offenders.

And if 96 percent of the nonviolent offenders being released early are
making sure they stay clean, even a short stay in an Alabama prison must be
enough of a deterrent for them to get their acts together.

The hope is that state officials will take notice of the low number of
early parolees who are reoffending, and come up with ways to keep
nonviolent criminals from ever going to prison. In a state as poor as
Alabama, expensive but scarce prison space must be dedicated to locking up
violent offenders so that the general public is protected.

People who violate the law must be punished, and they must understand that
there is a stiff price to pay for their illegal conduct. But communities
have to develop alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent offenders to
keep them from going to prison in the first place.