UNIFORM SENTENCING WOULD CUT PRISON COSTS

Senate Democrats are focusing on the state's prisons, and not its
universities, as a prime target during negotiations to eliminate a $1.1
billion budget deficit.

That's a worthwhile goal. Most residents would rather spend money on
educating young people than locking up felons. But making severe cuts in
the Department of Corrections budget is a tricky exercise. You can't simply
close prisons and slash staff.

But one area that can and should be addressed is making revisions in the
criminal code to go along with truth in sentencing.

The Democratic-controlled Senate would be duplicitous in talking about
excessive spending in the Department of Corrections if it didn't include
sentencing guidelines in its budget adjustment bill.

In his version of the budget adjustment bill, Gov. Scott McCallum included
the sentencing guidelines recommended in 1998 by the Criminal Penalties
Study Committee.

The Assembly also included those guidelines in its version of the budget.
If the Senate doesn't follow suit this week, Assembly representatives on
the conference committee must insist that the guidelines be a part of the
compromise budget sent to the governor.

But beyond the money savings is the fairness and consistency issue. Without
uniform sentencing guidelines for judges to follow, some inmates are
spending far more time in prison than others convicted of the same crime, a
needless disparity that contributes to skyrocketing prison costs.

A truth-in-sentencing fact sheet from the governor's office says this about
the longer sentences: "The more time an inmate spends in prison, the more
it costs the taxpayers in room and board - and the rehabilitation benefits
are minimal."

Both houses of the Legislature passed truth-in-sentencing in May 1988. But
only the Assembly adopted the new sentencing guidelines.

As we've said previously, truth in sentencing represents a dramatic, and
much-needed, change in Wisconsin's approach to punishing criminals. It
eliminated parole and requires criminals to serve their full sentences in
prison. However, we also said that truth in sentencing without changes in
the criminal code would be a disaster for the state's criminal justice system.

And it has been.

An analysis by The Associated Press has concluded that the lack of
sentencing guidelines has led to longer sentences that could cost taxpayers
an estimated $194.5 million over the next eight years.

"Is this an urgent situation? Yes, I do think it's an urgent situation, and
it's a situation that never had to happen if the Legislature had acted
earlier," said Thomas Hammer, a Marquette University law professor who
served on the committee that drafted the changes in the sentencing guidelines.

It cost the state nearly $27,000 last year to house the average adult
prisoner. Estimates are that Wisconsin's average daily prison population
could grow from about 21,000 now to 27,000 by 2005. Currently, the state's
prisons are 23 percent over capacity.

Wisconsin's prison system needs a top-to-bottom examination. There's no
logical reason why Wisconsin should imprison 381 adults per 100,000
residents when Minnesota - a neighboring state with similar population
demographics - imprisons only 136 adults per 100,000 residents.

But, in the meantime, passing sentencing guidelines to go along with truth
in sentencing is an important step toward a more just and fiscally
responsible prison system.