PRISON POPULATION CONTINUES TO GROW AT ALARMING PACE

Haywood County's "informal discussions" on a 1,000 bed maximum-security
prison raise a couple of questions, one specific and one very broad.

The first is simply, would such a facility be a good fit for the county?
The second is far more complex. Why are prisons such a growth industry, and
is this a good thing for America?

The simple answer to the first question is that in an area that has long
witnessed an eroding industrial base, a non-polluting industry offering 400
jobs paying around $25,000- $30,000 a year would almost undoubtedly be
welcomed.

Answering the second question isn't nearly so easy, especially when cast
against the backdrop of figures recently released by the U.S. Justice
Department showing three out of every 100 U.S. adults, by being locked up
or on parole or probation, are already in the correctional system - a
record 6.6 million.

To put that in perspective, if the U.S. corrections population were to form
a state, it would be the 13th most populous in the union, with a couple of
senators and 10 U.S. House members. Texas alone has a correctional
population of 755,100, more than the entire populations of Alaska, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming or the District of Colombia.

While North Carolina, with 113,600 people on probation and 46,500 in
prison, doesn't match those numbers, the overall figures and the trends are
both very troubling. One particularly disturbing aspect is that more people
seem to be getting in trouble over relatively minor crimes. Experts
studying Bureau of Justice Statistics reports point to a trend toward fewer
murder, rape and violent crime arrests; many of those on probation were
convicted of driving while intoxicated or of illegal drug use.

Given that many states are beginning to reconsider mandatory sentences and
are offering more alternatives to incarceration, the growth in the
corrections population should be doubly alarming.

"The overall figures suggest that we've come to rely on the criminal
justice system as a way of responding to social problems in a way that's
unprecedented," said Marc Mauer, assistant director of Sentencing Project,
a group that pushed incarceration alternatives.

We live in the real world, and in the real world there are, unfortunately,
a number of people whose behavior dictates they be locked away for the
benefit of society. The prison in Haywood, if it comes to pass, would
presumably be a necessary destination for such people. Whether the people
of Haywood desire such a prison will be their path to pursue.

The other path, leading toward a nation consisting of too many prisoners
and too many guards, is one America needs to reconsider. On the Net: The
Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org Vera Institute of
Justice: http://www.vera.org Bureau of Justice Statistics:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/