SENTENCING REFORM

Commission's Task To Take Another Year

The problems within the state's corrections system that the Alabama
Sentencing Commission must address are many and complex. They don't lend
themselves to quick, simple solutions.

Formed two years ago by the Legislature to review the state's sentencing
structure and recommend changes, the commission has learned it needs more
time, more money and more access to criminal records to complete its task.
While it's disappointing the panel won't be making its much anticipated
recommendations to the Legislature this year, legislators ought to make
sure the commission has the tools to finish its work by the start of the
2003 legislative session its new target date.

The commission is asking the Legislature for $377,000 to fund it for
another year, while adding a researcher/analyst to its staff, and to pass
legislation giving it access for research purposes to now confidential
information about offenders.

The Legislature should oblige. Not because $377,000 is an insignificant
amount of money (finding any money in an even-tighter-than-usual General
Fund budget will be a tough trick), but because the commission's role in
reforming the system that determines how long convicts are sentenced and
how long they actually remain behind bars is essential. And because the
cost of not reforming the system is much higher.

Among the problems plaguing the system are ranges of sentences that are too
broad, resulting in disparate treatment for convicts; the lack of any
semblance of truth in sentencing, resulting in a system where convicts
routinely serve only a fraction of their sentence; and a mandatory
sentencing law that is too rigid and keeps nonviolent offenders taking up
precious prison space that should be used to keep violent criminals locked
up longer.

All of these contribute to prison overcrowding. A state prison system built
to handle 10,000 inmates is crammed full with more than 26,000.

Then there are parole and the state's complicated system of "good time"
credit, which make it anyone's guess as to how long a convict will be
behind bars. Also, throw in alternatives to prisons such as community-based
work programs and substance abuse treatment, as well as post-release
supervision (Alabama probation officers have a caseload more than double
the national average).

All of these issues must be weighed.

Sentencing Commission members found that even studying the problem is
difficult, because they are hamstrung by a lack of compiled information on
offenders and by state confidentiality laws that keep it from getting
information it needs to complete its study. Without adequate information,
it's impossible to do the type of comprehensive analysis the commission has
been called upon to do. And, of course, without such an analysis,
commission members can't recommend needed changes to the system.

Legislators should give the commission what it needs, and commissioners
must make sure they have a complete plan ready for lawmakers to act on at
the beginning of next year's session.