PROBATIONERS ADD STRAIN, COSTS

Arizona's bulging prisons are being packed even fuller with hundreds
of probation violators whom the state's judges are locking up in
record numbers.

Since last fall, probationers who run away, miss meetings, test
positive for drugs or break other rules have increasingly been sent to
prison rather than given another chance on the street.

The result: Rather than staying on probation at an annual cost ranging
from $751 to about $5,000, they are being locked up at an annual cost
of about $23,000.

Officials point to two reasons. First is a tougher policy begun in the
past two years by Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, whose office
has been quicker to seek incarceration of probation violators.

Services slashed

Second is last fall's state budget cuts that slashed millions from
probation services, leaving judges little option but to send
delinquent probationers to already overcrowded prisons.

Experts say the jump in probationers sent to overcrowded prisons shows
how pressure on one part of Arizona's strained criminal-justice system
can cause quick and costly problems elsewhere.

"There definitely was a spike (in incarcerations)," Maricopa Superior
Court Judge Ron Reinstein said about last fall's budget cuts. "We
stopped giving (probation violators) as many chances as before."

Reinstein remembered hearing 10 probation-violation cases one day. "In
the old days I would have sent maybe four of them to prison," he said.
"That day I sent nine."

No apologies

For his part, Romley makes no apologies for tightening up his
policies.

"We did toughen up because we did a study that convinced us that
(probation revocation) policies were too lenient," he said.

He said his office began pressing harder for incarceration of
probationers guilty of both new crimes and of technical violations.

"I'm very supportive of probation, but my first concern has to be
public safety," he said.

The numbers in Maricopa County, which accounts for about two-thirds of
statewide criminal-justice activity, tell the same story.

The number of Maricopa County probation violators sent to prison
jumped 23.7 percent from fiscal 2001 to 2002, and an additional 25.5
percent in fiscal 2002-03.

The impact of the probation budget cuts was even more dramatic.
Starting in November, Maricopa County probationers sent to prison
soared by about 100 more cases per month.

Especially hard hit, officials say, was Intensive Probation
Supervision, in which higher-risk offenders are heavily monitored by
pairs of officers.

The program is popular with prosecutors and judges as a midpoint
between standard probation and imprisonment.

Though many of the cuts to intensive probation and other services have
been restored, Maricopa County and other Arizona counties still are
sending more offenders to prison than they otherwise would, officials
say.

Both in the county and statewide, revocations remain well above past
years. In May, for example, the county revoked 383 probations this
year compared with 303 last year.

Statewide, the May figures were 544 this year compared with 440 last
year.

Technical violations

The Department of Corrections notes that about a quarter of its total
admissions last year were for technical violations of probations.

"We lost about 440 IPS client slots out of 1,700 slots," said Barbara
Broderick, Maricopa County's chief probation officer.

But revocations likely will continue at a high level, Broderick
said.

"When we bring (probationers) in for violation court, we want help,"
she said.

Broderick said probation officers seek revocation only as a last
resort with clients who become fugitives, have tested at least twice
for drug use, have missed several meetings or failed to pay
restitution.

Rodney Mitchell of the county Public Defender's Office tends to
agree.

"Yes, there are (probation violators) who have been sent to prison too
quickly," Mitchell said, "but in general I think those (violators) who
can make it on probation are usually getting another chance."

Which is good news, he said, except that so many probationers seem to
need so much more.

"What do they need most?" Mitchell said. "A purpose in life."