STATE PRISON POPULATION GROWS

Connecticut's adult prison population grew 3.8 percent in 1997, an increase
that experts said reflects harsher sentences for violent offenders.

The rise brought Connecticut's inmate total to 18,521, up from 17,851 in
1996, U.S. Department of Justice officials said in a recently released
report.

(You can join a discussion about the rising prison population in Town Talk.)

The nation's prison population grew to more than 1.24 million, an increase
of 5.2 percent over 1996, according to the department's Bureau of Justice
Statistics said.

Connecticut's percentage increase, however, was greater than the 1.8
percent increase for the Northeast region, according to the report.

Chief State's Attorney John Bailey said "truth-in-sentencing" laws the
General Assembly passed has meant longer terms for the most serious
felonies.

As recently as 1988 to 1991, the average inmate in Connecticut served 10
percent of his or her sentence, Bailey said. Because of new laws, felons
now serve 85 percent of their sentences on average, he said.

But when it comes to non-violent offenders, the state has come up with a
number of methods of punishment and rehabilitation that do not include time
behind bars, experts said.

"We probably lead the country in keeping prison space for violent
offenders," Bailey said.

State Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, co-chairman of the General Assembly's
Judiciary Committee, agreed, saying the state has been innovative in
finding alternative ways to sentence drug offenders.

"We are probably more progressive than any other state in terms of giving
prosecutors and judges the discretion to do other things (besides jailing
them) with drug offenders," said Lawlor, D-East Haven.

Part of the reason for the trend has been an explosion in prison costs
since the mid-1980s, Lawlor said.

He said that in 1986 the state spent $100 million on its prison system and
$400 million on higher education. In 1996, the state spent $400 million on
prisons and $395 million on higher education, he said.

"I think state governments, especially ours, have found this is an
incredibly expensive thing to do, to lock up all these people," he said.

The state Department of Correction estimates it costs $70.49 per day, or
$25,728 per year, to house an inmate, a spokesman said.

Whereas the state emphasizes alternative sanctions for drug and other
non-violent offenders, the federal government takes a harder line, said
Vito Castignoli, a Milford defense lawyer.

That, he said, causes the number of people in the federal prison system to
rise more rapidly than the number of those in state prisons. Congress has
passed the laws "to look tough on crime," he said.

For instance, federal law treats a person caught with one gram of crack
cocaine like a person caught with 100 grams of powder cocaine.

The federal prison propulation jumped 7 percent from 105,544 to 112,973,
the Justice Department report said.

"At the state level, they still have more discretion to not put a guy in
jail if they feel he doesn't belong in jail," he said.

Neighboring New York saw its prison population increase only 0.5 percent to
70,026 in 1997, the report states.

Connecticut's other border states also saw smaller increases. Massachusetts
posted an increase of 1.3 percent to 11,947; Rhode Island's increase was
3.1 percent to 3,371, according to the report.

(c) 1998, New Haven Register