SLOW THE REVOLVING DOORS ON VIRGINIA'S PRISON SYSTEM

Record numbers of Americans are being sent off to prison these days.
And guess what.

Record numbers are coming back home.

With the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimating that about 614,000
people will be released from state and federal prisons this year, a
few states are beginning to rethink how those prisoners are occupying
their time behind bars.

Virginia, which has been at the crest of the tough-on-crime wave,
ought to pay attention.

Here, as in most of the rest of the country, prison rehabilitation was
pretty much abandoned as a public policy goal in the 1990s. In the
2000s, it's time for a revival -- if not as a full-fledged effort to
reverse errant lives, then at least as a way to improve the odds that
former inmates will make it outside prison.

The state leaders in this updated rehabilitation movement are Oregon
and Missouri, although others are experimenting with change.

Ironically, the impetus for reform in Oregon came from a 1994
referendum in which voters decreed that prisoners should work 40 hours
a week, just like the taxpayers who fund their upkeep.

To meet that goal, prison officials consulted with business executives
and began training prisoners to fill actual job openings, as
telemarketers, computer technicians and the like.

Drug and literacy programs also are a big part of the mix. (Addicts
who can't read are not a good bet to stay clear of crime when returned
to society.)

So far in Oregon, recidivism is down, as are prison disciplinary
problems.

Virginia, to its credit, has not totally ignored the trend. More
offenders are now in community corrections programs than in prison
facilities. And there are some efforts at drug treatment, the best
involving separate, therapeutic communities with a total of 2,000 beds
at nine facilities.

But available drug-treatment slots barely begin to match the need. One
of the fatalities in this year's budget wars was drug-treatment money
that had previously been added.

A starting point for change may be a legislative study group gearing
up to consider treatment options for adult and juvenile offenders with
mental illness and substance-abuse problems.

In any event, Virginians concerned with public safety had best heed
what evidence there is about preparing prisoners for the real world.
Law breakers can be removed from the streets for a while. But in many
cases, a prisoner today is someone's neighbor tomorrow.