CORRECTING PRISON POLICY

Prison should be reserved for those who pose a

To relieve prison overcrowding, save state taxpayers money and
preserve families, South Carolina should limit the use of its
prisons to housing truly dangerous or habitual criminals.

The state's corrections facilities are crowded with drug offenders
and other nonviolent criminals. This needlessly destroys families
and wastes the resources of the state.

Attorney General Henry McMaster says he has a plan to address the
problem. While much of the public attention to his proposal has
focused on his plan to abolish parole, his design includes
alternatives to prison for many offenses.

The attorney general wants to expand the use of drug courts. These
courts establish an intensive, court-supervised form of probation
for drug offenders. They are forced into treatment and must
successfully complete that treatment or be sent to prison.

McMaster wants to extend that concept to apply it to other crimes as
well. He would establish a middle court between Magistrate Court and
Circuit Court that would provide the same intensively supervised
probation. Defendants would be held responsible for staying in
school or staying employed, drug testing, paying restitution and
other conditions set by the court. If they failed to abide by those
conditions, they would be incarcerated.

The drug courts and the middle courts could keep nonviolent
offenders out of the prison system, relieving the pressure on the
state's corrections system. They would also save the state money,
since it would be less expensive to deal with a criminal
through drug or middle court than to house him in prison.

These types of punishment and supervision can also serve to preserve
the economic viability of an offender and his family, allowing him
to maintain employment and support his family rather than spending
years in prison and being unable to find a job when he is
released. They are also easier on families than the years
of separation mandated by prison sentences.

McMaster pairs these plans with his proposal to abolish parole. The
general effect would be to reserve prison space for the truly
violent and dangerous criminals, who would be kept behind bars longer.

It's a worthwhile plan that should be considered by the General
Assembly, but that's where the greatest danger lies. South
Carolina's lawmakers love to appear tough on crime. They are quick
to pass laws requiring lengthy prison sentences but are not willing
to pay for the prisons necessary to house the growing numbers they send there.

If the legislature were to approve McMaster's plan to abolish parole
without expanding drug courts and establishing a middle court
system, it would worsen the state's prison problems.