PRISON BUDGET POINTS TO NEED FOR ALTERNATIVES

The arithmetic makes some sense. The number of state prison inmates is
expected to rise by half in three years, so the corrections agency proposes
to boost its next two-year budget by a fourth.

But even if the Department of Corrections gets all the money it is seeking,
don't expect to see the light at the end of the prison-crowding tunnel. The
$281 million increase won't suffice to solve the present crowding problem
plus head off future congestion, stemming from a continued acceleration in
the number of offenders sent to prison and in the length of their sentences.

What's more, the new law ending parole promises to step up that
acceleration. So at the present rate, expect huge jumps in the prison budget
for many bienniums to come.

But must things continue at the present rate? We think not. The heavy cost
of incarceration ought to lead the state to explore 1) protecting the public
and 2) punishing lawbreakers in more cost-effective ways.

Beyond a scintilla of a doubt, violent criminals must stew in prison. But
surely the state does not rely as much as it could on alternatives to prison
for non-violent offenders. Such options include restitution, community
service and house arrest.

What's more, the state makes too little effort inside and outside prison to
rehabilitate offenders. Even though they are serving more time now than
previously, most will return to the community whence they came -- often
still illiterate or drug-addicted or devoid of work skills. If for no other
reason than the community's safety, state policy ought to aim for returning
inmates to society better equipped to stay straight than when they were
imprisoned.

Also, the huge cost of incarceration ought to underscore the urgency of
investing in children to keep them off the criminal track in the first
place. Social misfits disproportionately come from the ranks of poor, abused
or neglected children.

As for the present budget proposal, the plan to send as many as an
additional 4,500 inmates to cells out of state is alarming. Out-of-state
cells are OK as a stopgap -- which has justified the state's current rental
of 3,000 such cells. But more than doubling that number is worrisome,
because rehabilitation, as inadequate as it is in Wisconsin, is even less
adequate for inmates housed out of state. The programs are skimpier and
inmates lack the ready support of their families -- which can help
rehabilitation.

All in all, the prison budget proposal should prompt state officials to
search for smarter ways to punish lawbreakers and protect society.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst