SMARTER PRISON PRIORITIES

The same North Carolina legislature that came up with sentencing guidelines
to help fight crime a decade ago now wants to consider reducing some
sentences to save money. Funny how a budget crisis can change people's
perceptions of criminals.

The truth is that criminals are as dysfunctional as they ever were. If the
number of law-breakers grows as the general population is expected to, the
proportion of drug addicts and other criminals probably won't change much,
either. And prisons were never meant to repair broken lives. North
Carolina's priorities ought to be steering children to become law-abiding
adults, helping people recover from their first brushes with the law, and
protecting the public from violent sociopaths -- in that order.

The advantage of the new sentencing guidelines hasn't been the criminals
imprisoned as a result, but the 10,000 to 12,000 offenders directed into
treatment or strict community supervision since 1994. Those numbers
represent, for example, many addicts who have had a chance to rehabilitate
themselves. During the same period, North Carolina attained one of the
lowest incarceration rates in the South, while overall crime rates fell.
That's a proud record upon which the state should build.

Toward that aim, the suggestion to shorten sentences for non-violent drug
offenders makes sense if the prison costs saved are invested in treatment
for addictions. North Carolina already has extended an offer to reduce
sentences for inmates who take classes to pass the high school equivalency
test. An ex-offender who has conquered addiction and earned a GED has a
realistic chance of survival outside prison walls.

In that spirit, North Carolina ought to consider joining the states that
send first-or second-time drug offenders to mandatory treatment instead of
jail. Research has shown that public safety is unlikely to suffer and
prison costs are reduced.

North Carolina has made admirable progress away from warehousing offenders
as if they were all the same. But when the majority of prison wardens say
that about half their inmates pose no threat to the public, it becomes
apparent that more progress is needed. And progress could even be
cost-effective.