STATE REHABILITATION CENTER TO IMPROVE PENAL SYSTEM

Georgia excels at putting people behind bars; it boasts the nation's
eighth-largest prison population. Where Georgia lags behind is in
keeping people out of jail in the first place or from returning to
prison for later offenses.

The grand opening of the Atlanta Day Reporting Center on Tuesday
signals a belated recognition of the dire need for preventive programs
and lower-security alternatives to high-security prisons ---
alternatives such as detention centers, halfway houses, parole
revocation centers --- for nonviolent criminals and small-time drug
offenders.

Diverting these lawbreakers to other programs frees up prison beds for
the dangerous felons serving longer sentences under Georgia's tough
"two strikes and you're out" law. (Georgia now has more inmates
serving life sentences in its prisons than 13 other states each have
total prisoners.) Diversion centers also offer dramatic cost
reductions at a time when the annual state Department of Corrections
budget is approaching the billion dollar mark.

The 6,400-square-foot facility in an industrial park on Bankhead
Highway is a sort of superstore for parolees and probationers on the
brink of being sent to prison. Under one roof, 125 clients receive
substance-abuse counseling, GED and job training, medical screenings
and regular supervision. After a month, participants must get jobs and
report to the center in the evenings for classes. If they flub it,
their next stop is the state pen.

The Atlanta Day Reporting Center, the first of its kind in Georgia,
reflects a unique partnership between the Department of Corrections
and the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. The intention is to
duplicate the center around the state if it proves successful.

For too long, Georgia has poured most of its money into concrete and
steel prisons, giving short shrift to cheaper and more effective
community-based alternatives. Without those alternatives, judges have
had no choice but to send people to prisons, where the annual bill to
taxpayers is $18,000 per inmate. By comparison, the cost of housing
inmates in diversionary programs is thousands less.

An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people now in state prisons could be
diverted to what prison officials term "soft" beds, according to
Corrections spokesman Mike Light. "We've had judges sentence a
first-time drug offender to three years and tell us later, 'If I had
alternatives, I would use them, but there's nothing within miles of
this corner,' " says Light.

Because of a historical lack of rehabilitative initiatives, state
prisons have not been effective in teaching inmates to become
law-abiding, taxpaying citizens. About four out of 10 commit another
crime after they're released that lands them right back behind bars.

Most prisoners depart state prisons with a bus ticket and $25 in their
pocket. Few of them have learned enough in jail to obtain a decent
job, so they resort to crime.

Out of the 45,000 inmates in our state prisons, only 1,821 earned GEDs
last year. Georgia operates a handful of transition programs where
inmates transfer to job training sites in their last six to nine
months of incarceration, leaving the prison system as a taxpayer
rather than a tax burden. But only one out of 15 inmates can
participate because of the limited spots.

While emphasizing "hard time and hard beds for hard criminals,"
Corrections Commissioner Jim Wetherington says he's committed to
creating alternatives for those offenders who don't need to be in
prison. The Atlanta Day Reporting Center is a promising beginning.