ROMER: TOO MANY PEOPLE IN PRISON?

By Thomas Frank
Denver Post Capitol Bureau

Nov. 11 Colorado can no longer afford exponential increases in prison
spending and should consider reducing sentences for nonviolent crimes,
including drug and traffic offenses, Gov. Roy Romer said Monday.

That idea has been quietly uttered in the statehouse hallways by a number
of legislators and drug treatment experts ever since new sentencing laws
were passed in 1985 and began producing huge increases in spending for
construction and staffing of prisons to house nonviolent offenders.

But the idea has been kept mostly out of mainstream politics because of
fears those who promoted it would seem "soft on crime" to voters.

Until now. Addressing a session of the legislature's Joint Budget Committee
as he presented his proposed 19981999 budget, the governor used the
everincreasing bottom line for prison construction and operation to make
his point.

Romer's annual budget request calls for a total of $10.1 billion in
spending, up from $9.4 billion for the current budget year. He is seeking
$4.9 billion in operating money an increase of $271.4 million compared to
this year. The operating request includes $4.7 billion in allocations to
specific departments, an estimated $140 million in capital construction and
other government transfers. A $143 million budget surplus is expected.

The Republican majority in the legislature has its own budget process and
often pays little attention to the governor's plan, but the sentencing laws
have required big increases in corrections spending regardless of political
philosophy.

"The Department of Corrections budget continues to grow at an accelerated
pace as the state opens new facilities to handle the state's crowing inmate
population," Romer told the committee. "The corrections request includes a
$45 million of new general fund money for a 16 percent increase," compared
to the previous year. "Wow. That's an expenditure line we're going to have
to change."

Corrections, he pointed out, is growing faster than any other section of
the budget, and there seems to be no end in sight. "The corrections
operating budget will require 12 to 15 percent increases each year for the
foreseeable future," he said.

Next year alone, Romer said, the state prison system will require 600 new
workers.

"We need to look at nonviolent traffic and drugrelated crimes and
reexamine the sentencing patterns there." A Romer spokesman later called
to clarify that the governor does not have a specifc proposal for changing
sentencing laws, he just raised the issue for discussion.

Romer said lawmakers and the executive branch need to unite in considering
parole, community corrections and other options to incarceration for
nonviolent offenders.

The money saved from building and operating prisons could be spent
"preventing problems in the first place," said Romer, referring to
proposals for a 3 percent increase in school spending statewide and a $25
million request for new childrens' initiatives in his budget.

"I feel very strongly about education and the impact of those early years
on children and their development," he said. "We have to get at these
problems ... earlier."

After the meeting, Romer admitted he was taking a politically unpopular
stance. That's why, he said, it is so important for lawmakers to join him
in working on the issue.

"We've got to see where we're spending our money and see whether or not
we've got (drug offenders) on the right kind of program. That's why that
(Denver) Drug Court is so good." The Denver Drug Court gives many offenders
the chance to have their records wiped clean if they stay in treatment and
out of trouble.

But the chairman of the legislature's budget committee, and Denver's
district attorney, seemed skeptical of the proposal.

"We've still got 1,200 prisoners (housed) outside of the state of
Colorado," said JBC Chairman Rep. Tony Grampsas, REvergreen. "If we don't
keep building prisons, what do you want us to do? Keep them all out of
state?" Denver DA Bill Ritter isn't sold on the idea, either.

While they aren't technically considered violent criminals, "I think I'd be
uncomfortable tinkering with laws that deal with people trafficking in
drugs and have guns associated, or trafficking in drugs and have such an
large amount" that they'd be required to serve a minimum sentence, he said.

Eric Ennis, executive director of Addiction Research and Treatment Services
at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center said there are two
ways of looking at the idea. "It does seem like our prisons are full of
many people who aren't violent and aren't a tremendous risk to society ...
on the other hand, sometimes people make their way to treatment because of
the threat of going to prison." A concept like Denver's Drug Court, he
said, is probably the best mix.

Department of Corrections director Ari Zavaras said he wasn't surprised
that the governor floated the idea of reduced sentences.

"Certainly the governor believes as I do that someone dealing in drugs and
creating havoc on the street should be confined," Zavaras said. "But
sometimes you need to do things as effectively as possible. We'd be
negligent if we didn't see if we can keep the level of public safety where
it needs to be and do that through less expensive sanctions.