DOYLE'S PAROLE PROPOSAL HELPFUL IN SEVERAL WAYS

A provision of Gov. Jim Doyle's 2003-05 budget proposal looks like a good
first step in overhauling the state's corrections system.

Under the proposal, about 400 non-violent offenders would be sent not to
one of the state's typical prisons, but to a rehabilitation program at a
prison workhouse in Sturtevant, near Racine.

Offenders who violate their probation of parole can be sent to what the
budget proposal calls "intensive programming," which would include a
work-release program, treatment for drug or alcohol abuse and community
service, for 90 days.

The proposal addresses two important goals: saving the state money and
actually trying to rehabilitate offenders.

Money would be saved by sending these parole violators to the proposed
program instead of to prison. Corrections costs skyrocketed in the 1990s,
as get-tough-on-crime initiatives sent non-violent offenders to jail more
often.

Wisconsin's corrections budget is now about $1 billion a year, which is
four times more than in 1990.

We now have a prison population of about 21,000, three times that of
Minnesota's prison population.

With the state facing a two-year budget deficit of $3.2 billion, some of
the money spent on housing non-violent offenders in prison could be better
spent on programs such as education and health and human services. And some
of it could be better spent on helping offenders become productive members
of society.

The point of sentencing is supposed to be punishment and rehabilitation.
We' ve got the punishment part of that down cold, but now we're finding
that maybe we can't afford it to this extent with our current budgets.

Practicality is one reason to consider diversion programs that include
rehabilitation as an option for some non-violent offenders, but they also
would help our future budgets.

If rehabilitation efforts can help reduce the number of repeat offenders
who land back in prison, our corrections costs can be reduced even more.

Doyle's proposal affects a small number of parolees. But it represents the
right idea to turn around our reliance on prisons, which ultimately feeds
itself and drains the state's finances.