WISING UP

Judge Imposes Smart Sentence On Teen Drug Offender

Selling drugs is a crime that deserves to be punished no doubt about that.
But the case of Webster Alexander was a case study in how out-of-whack
Alabama's criminal justice system can be.

Thankfully, a judge has now righted what initially threatened to be a gross
miscarriage of justice.

Alexander, remember, was first sentenced to 26 years in prison for selling
about $350 worth of marijuana as a high school student in Moulton. Beyond
being unreasonably harsh for a first-time offender, the sentence
illustrated exactly why Alabama prisons are in the fix they are in.

You can only lock so many people up and throw away the key without soon
needing to build more prisons. But Alabama just kept piling inmates into
existing prison space, creating dangerously overcrowded conditions and a
huge liability for taxpayers.

Worse, a great many of these prisoners, like Alexander, were jailed because
of nonviolent offenses and drugs, not because they were a threat to public
safety. Indeed, violent offenders make up less than half of those behind
bars in Alabama; in 2000, only one in four inmates entering the prison
system was convicted of violent offenses.

Forgetting questions of fairness, this is not a wise use of taxpayer
dollars. Many nonviolent offenders could be more cheaply, more
appropriately and more effectively dealt with in community corrections
programs.

Alexander is a prime example.

A Lawrence County judge on Wednesday cut the teenager's sentence,
effectively, to two years one in the county jail and one on probation.
After a month in the county jail, he can enter a work-release program that
will allow him to develop skills and offset the costs of his incarceration.
After he completes the jail time and probation, Alexander's progress will
be evaluated by courts.

All in all, this scenario gives Alexander, now 19, a chance a chance to pay
the consequences for his criminal conduct, then put this episode behind him
and build a productive life. He could still blow it, of course.

But so far, Alexander has shown himself worthy of a second chance. Since
his arrest, he has gotten his high school diploma, gone through drug
rehabilitation, completed a year of college and held jobs. Judge Philip
Reich's new sentence for Alexander offers far more hope that his progress
will continue than would years in the prison system.

This way shields Alexander from the more hardened criminals he would
encounter in the state prison system but still uses the threat of prison as
a powerful incentive to keep him on the straight and narrow. Moreover,
taxpayers aren't paying year in, year out to lock up a defendant who is not
a threat to public safety.

It's not being soft on crime. It's being smart on crime.