PRISONS

Overcrowding Will Cost State Dearly

Mississippi lawmakers don't like to be forced to do anything, even if it's
the right thing. But they have met their match with prisoners' rights
attorney Ron Welch.

Backed by a longstanding federal court order, under Gates vs. Collier,
Welch has filed suit to stop overcrowding in Mississippi's jails.

His motion in U.S. District Court in Greenville seeks $19.7 million in
fines against the state for contempt by refusing to honor the 1985 court
order forcing state inmates out of county jails.

Mississippi has built prisons at a furious rate. That is a major reason the
Department of Corrections budget has ballooned from $88 million in 1995 to
about $270 million today.

Mississippi now has18,700 inmates; the number is estimated to reach 25,000
within the next five years.

So why are county jails so full?

It's the state's so-called "Truth in Sentencing" law passed by the
Legislature in 1994 to "get tough" on crime.

Federal authorities had mandated the passage of a law requiring those who
committed serious crimes to serve 85 percent of their sentences.

But the Legislature went a step further, applying it across the board,
ignoring the federal requirement and prudence.

Mississippi lawmakers are now wrangling over how to reduce prison crowding
and still have effective punishment.

There are a number of options, including expanding drug courts that provide
treatment of addicts rather than incarcerating them with hardened
criminals.

Lawmakers last week voted to amend the law to allow inmates to earn shorter
sentence.

A House bill provides that if inmates join prison work or education
programs and have no discipline problems, they would get one day off their
sentence for every day worked.

In a Senate bill, inmates would be eligible for house arrest within one
year of serving 85 percent of a sentence.

That may not be enough.

The pressure to change the law has so far been financial, with a budget
squeeze for new prisons threatening to muscle out such high-priority items
as raising teacher pay.

With Welch's legal motion, the might of the federal government can be
applied. Delaying action on this issue becomes potentially much more
expensive.