LOCK-'EM-UP STRATEGY HAS LIMITS

To judge from their actions, state policy-makers have mostly pretended that
the prison-crowding problem will just go away. Well, it hasn't gone away;
it's worsened -- a point underscored by a new federal report. Wisconsin's
15% increase in the number of people behind bars last year ranked third
among the states.

True, Wisconsin has tried building more prisons. Trouble is, the prisons
crowd faster than new penitentiaries rise -- a tale that promises to repeat
itself even as the "supermax" prison springs up in Boscobel. Lawmakers have
taken to shipping some inmates out of state for incarceration -- a stopgap
measure that provides temporary relief, but no long-term solution to
congestion.

Last session, legislators did a foolish thing. They cut back on the
intensive sanctions program, which involves house arrest, among other
measures, and which eases prison crowding. They argued that they were
making up for the loss of the intensive-sanctions slots by adding 1,000
out-of-state slots.

The truth is, the new slots were needed anyway, just to keep up with the
increase in prison enrollment. The pressure of crowding will continue
unabated. Thus, the net result of the legislative action will likely be to
free inmates early for lack of room, and without the close supervision of
intensive sanctions.

That program does need mending. But state policy-makers are foolhardy if
they believe they can make do without alternatives to incarceration.
Crowding without a plan creates its own alternative: premature release into
the streets.

Lawmakers curtailed intensive sanctions because two men being monitored
under the program were involved in murders. Maybe better supervision could
have headed off those crimes.

In any event, legislators must come to grips with this reality: Some
lawbreakers caught up in the criminal justice system will commit new crimes
once released. Stay calm; don't go berserk and pass new laws once they do.
You may think the state can lock up all lawbreakers forever to reduce that
possibility to zero, but in reality, Wisconsin lacks the billions of
dollars needed to do so.

So the state must develop some sort of rationing system. Give first dibs on
prison space to violent criminals, please. Onetime losers who are not a
threat should come under some sort of loose supervision while living
regular lives. In between those two extremes should lie various degrees of
confinement and/or supervision.

At the same time, the state must strive in other ways to reduce the chances
that an offender will commit new crimes once released. Unfortunately,
confinement out of state without rehabilitation programs or the close
support of families is by no means one of those ways.