A LOGICAL PRISON POLICY

Alabama Should Have Been Paroling More Offenders All Along

It took a fiscal crisis to make it happen, but Alabama is on the verge of
dealing with criminals in a logical manner.

A new four-member panel has doubled the state's ability to hold hearings on
whether to release nonviolent offenders. The idea is that prison beds
should be reserved for those who offer a clear and present danger to society.

The new panel won't accomplish that totally. Alabama, after all, has tried
to hold twice the number of inmates that its prison system can safely hold.
But it's a major first step in aligning common sense with rehabilitation
and public protection.

Politicians, in Alabama and elsewhere, for years have tried to parlay
stringent prison sentences and inadequate funding for correctional
institutions into votes. It made no sense, but it was an easy emotional sell.

Unfortunately - or, more correctly, fortunately - the federal courts won't
allow the state to continue overcrowded and otherwise and unsafe
punishment. So emergency measures are under way to reduce the prison
population.

To that end, the new panel has been placing on parole those people whose
crimes may not in all cases merit the the long prison terms they were
given. That makes sense, but it isn't the total answer. Many of the
prisoners most eligible for parole are in the work-release program. But
work-release prisoners are housed in centers, not prisons, so paroling them
doesn't free up more beds for violent offenders.

In a logical system, corrections officials would be able to put violent
people behind bars and use programs such as house arrest and close
monitoring to make lawbreakers better citizens.

In other words, what the revamped parole system is doing now is what the
state should have been doing all along - along with enough money to pay for
alternative punishment, which is less expensive than housing and feeding
people in prison cells.

The threat of a federal takeover of the state's prison system has pushed
state leaders toward action that political leaders have been afraid to
undertake. By itself, the increased paroles won't be enough. But they can
be part of a more sensible penal system.