PUSH CANDIDATES ON PRISON ISSUES

One of the few heartening aspects of the gubernatorial campaign to date is
the discussion of prison issues, something that all the major candidates
are talking about with some degree of seriousness.

Alabamians should encourage that debate among the candidates, being careful
to disdain demagoguery while pushing the hopefuls for realistic proposals.
Prison issues lend themselves to easy political pitches, but these prove to
be public policy problems later on.

Alabama has about 27,000 inmates, quite a high number for a state this
size. Housing that many inmates is a struggle, as the excessive number of
state inmates being held in county jails attests.

Candidates should be asked by voters about the processes that lead to so
many incarcerated inmates, about inflexible sentencing practices, about
laws that impose unrealistic penalties, about alternatives to traditional
incarceration. They should be pushed also to discuss issues such as
education, in light of the high percentage of inmates with minimal - or
worse - reading and writing skills.

While there is near-universal agreement that violent criminals have to be
locked up in penitentiaries, there is lots of room for debate over the
responsible handling of non-violent inmates, notably low-level drug
offenders and some property crime offenders.

Traditional incarceration is not always necessary for the protection of
society. It certainly impedes the ability of an offender to make
restitution to victims when that is appropriate.

If voters will press the gubernatorial candidates on prison issues and not
accept pat responses that don't reflect serious thought, a beneficial
public policy debate can occur.