PRISON HEAD URGES CREATIVE SENTENCING

GREENVILLE--South Carolina should find alternative sentences for
nonviolent offenders to reduce a growing prison population,
Corrections Department director Jon Ozmint says.

The prison system is at its capacity of 23,500 inmates and has grown 5
percent a year, Ozmint said.

Dealing with an additional 1,200 prisoners a year comes as the
Corrections Department's budget has been cut $72 million in the past
three years.

The best way to reduce the population is to focus on the 48 percent of
the state's inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses with no record of
committing violent crimes.

"We need to be more creative and more wise about using expensive bed
space," Ozmint said.

Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Columbia, agrees changes are needed.

"There's a very large number of people in our prisons there for bad
checks, failure to pay child support and simple possession of drugs,"
Cotty said. "And all of those inmates are not paying taxes. They could
be on a work program with a bracelet on their ankle."

Changing would create a political problem, he said. "No one wants to
step up and say, 'Don't send these people to prison,' That sounds like
you're soft on crime. It will take political leadership to say, 'Wait
a minute, maybe we need a little bit of flexibility.' "

House Speaker David Wilkins said the state's primary obligation is to
keep violent criminals in prison.

He agrees with looking at options for nonviolent criminals.

"You lock the violent criminals up and you find alternative ways (to
punish) your nonviolent offenders," Wilkins said.

But Wilkins said no one has proved to him that mandatory minimum
sentences have increased the prison population.

Ozmint said mandatory minimum sentences create management
problems.

Prosecutor Bob Ariail said he thinks mandatory minimum sentences are
working as they were intended, by keeping violent offenders off the
streets longer.

Ariail said he generally supports alternative sentencing for
nonviolent criminals.

"However, the devil is in the details," he said. "You have to get
their attention."