PROBATION PROGRAMS SAVE PEOPLE FROM LIVES OF CRIME

Virginia judges increasingly are assigning low-level offenders to
state-funded community-based probation programs, rather than putting
them behind bars. That's good.

Unfortunately, funding for the program is insufficient, with the
result that case workers are often responsible for two to three times
the number of people that the state recommends. This program should be
fully funded for these reasons:

a.. It's working. In seven of every 10 cases closed last year,
offenders successfully completed programs. That means they paid fines,
held jobs, went to school and attended treatment for mental health or
substance abuse.

a.. Such rehabilitation is far cheaper than incarceration and frees
cells for more serious offenders.

a.. Offenders who could have become drains on society for their whole
lives instead become contributors. Remember, the main trade learned
behind bars is crime. Programs that emphasize rehabilitation over
incarceration are typically underfunded, said David Rubinstein, a
Fredericksburg lawyer and former director of the Virginia Poverty Law
Center. ``They're valuable programs that are badly overstressed,'' he
said.

The state recommends one case worker per 50 offenders. But look at the
numbers locally: For the year ending last June 30, the ratio was 144
to 1 in Virginia Beach, 131 to 1 in Norfolk, 74 to 1 in Chesapeake, 65
to 1 in Suffolk and 58 to 1 in Portsmouth.

The state should make the investment to bring down the number of
offenders per case worker and thus to save lives and tax dollars down
the road.