INMATE NUMBERS CALL FOR REVIEW

Think back, if you're old enough, to 1977. Jimmy Carter was president of the
United States and George Wallace was in the third of his four terms as
governor of Alabama. That year, Alabama had about 5,500 inmates in its
prison system.

It began 2003 with 28,316 inmates.

Those numbers bring home yet again the huge growth in the prison population
and the additional strain it places on the state's already strained
finances.

It is little comfort to know that other states have had similar percentage
increases in their inmate populations in recent years.

"This is not an Alabama problem. It's happening in every state," said Robert
Sigler, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama. "We're at
the peak of a retribution cycle -- get tough on crime."

But a strong case can be made that the policies of the past quarter-century
have been at least as tough on the taxpayers, and that their impact only
increases.

The easy rhetoric about being tough on crime and coddling criminals and
other such stock phrases of past political campaigns has not resulted in a
notably safer society. Instead, it has resulted in a sadly overloaded prison
system that is dangerous to the people who work in it and to the inmates
held in it.

Since 1980, the state has added prison facilities designed to house about
7,400 inmates. That sounds like a lot, but in the same time period, the
system has added more than 21,000 inmates to the total prison population.
Alabama is losing the numbers game, and in a big way. By any reasonable
standard, Alabama incarcerates too many people for offenses that don't call
for incarcerations. We aren't talking about murderers and rapists and other
violent offenders; prison is surely the place for them.

But is prison the place for the nonviolent property offender, for the
drug-addicted offender or others who are far less likely to present any
physical danger to the public?

As long as the law effectively says yes to that question, Alabama can hardly
expect to see the rise in its inmate population halted. The state needs a
fundamental re-evaluation of its laws on sentencing and its policies on
punishment.