LET'S PAY CRIMINALS TO BEHAVE THEMSELVES

In your recent editorial, "The prison dilemma," you talk about our
state's burgeoning prison population and point out that a large
percentage of inmates are being incarcerated for non-violent crimes.

You further state that putting someone in prison for 25 years costs
$500,000 and ask whether California's taxpayers should really be
footing such a massive bill, especially when cheaper alternatives to
prison are available for non-violent offenders.

I could not agree more, and the questions you raised got me to
thinking.

Of course, vicious felons belong in prison, but instead of jailing
non-violent criminals, let's just pay each of them $250,000 on the
condition that they "behave themselves" over the next 25 years.

This would produce a number of major benefits for everyone: it would
encourage non-violent offenders to mend their anti-social ways in the
future, it would spur economic growth, since many of these misguided
folks would find ways of spending their $250,000 within our state, it
would eliminate the problem of prison overcrowding and also the need
for more multi-billion dollar bonds to build additional prisons.
Furthermore, it would save taxpayers $500,000 for each 25 year prison
term that is no longer necessary.

Deduct the $250,000 paid to each non-violent offender, and you still
get a net savings of $250,000 per conviction

I was so excited by this idea that I got out my calculator and
reckoned what my plan would save Californians over the next 25 years.
Using the most conservative of estimates, I came up with the
staggering sum of $25 billion dollars. $25 billion which would then be
available for things like education, road maintenance and even --
perish the thought -- tax cuts.

Given that I have just discovered such a creative way to save
Californians 25 billion bucks, I think a 10 percent commission on the
savings is not a lot for me to ask.

Michael Freidman lives in Carpinteria.