STATE PRISON POLICY NEEDS MORE FLEXIBILITY

South Carolina Cannot Afford to 'Throw Away the Key'

The South Carolina legislature must listen to the prison system leader
who says more alternatives to jail time are needed for nonviolent
offenders. Jon Ozmint, director of the S.C. Department of Corrections,
says the prison system also needs greater flexibility on cutting
sentences for good behavior.

A look at the cold facts shows why change is needed. The bottom line
is that the state cannot afford all the measures approved by
legislators who in recent years felt they must be considered "tough on
crime" to get elected. The result is a system that is tough on crime,
but also tough on common sense. It has taken years of state budget
shortfalls to make the problem obvious.

The prison system gets less money from the state each year, while the
inmate population increases. It has lost more than $70 million in
funding in recent years, but South Carolina ended 2003 with 1,100 more
inmates than the year before.

More than 24,000 people are incarcerated in state prisons. That's
roughly the population of full cities, such as Aiken or Greenwood. The
prison population has increased by 2,500 in the past three years alone.

Despite cost controls -- including severe cutbacks in the number of
prison guards, the loss of programs for inmates and salaries at a
level so low it is hard to keep employees -- the prison system ran a
$21 million deficit last year.

Something has to give.

Ozmint has made modest proposals that he thinks will result in a
gradual, though slight, reduction in the growth of the inmate population.

House Speaker David Wilkins and others are listening. That is a good
sign. Wilkins, a Greenville Republican, and three other lawmakers have
filed a bill that would allow for alternatives to prison for
nonviolent offenders. Nonviolent criminals serving less than five
years in prison would be eligible for house arrest, electronic
monitoring and daily supervision.

That would be a good start. About half the state's prison population
is nonviolent offenders.

After making some logical tweaks to the system, policy-makers need to
revisit mandatory prison sentences and "zero tolerance" law
enforcement. Judges, and even prison administrators, need more leeway
than many laws allow.

Prison policy, like all other state law, cannot be wishful thinking.
It must be grounded in what is practical and what the state can afford.