U.S. SENTENCING PANEL TO FOCUS ON ALTERNATIVES TO JAIL

WASHINGTON -- The panel that sets sentencing guidelines for federal
courts plans to focus on developing alternatives to incarceration,
setting up a possible clash with the Justice Department.

Exactly what the U.S. Sentencing Commission might recommend isn't
clear. Possible models include bodies such as drug courts, which
place offenders in treatment instead of prison. The panel's
intention, which it mentioned in a filing in the Federal Register,
could provide an impetus for cash-strapped states to follow suit.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the department is
hopeful about the use of monitoring technologies and other
strategies, but "we do not believe the use of alternatives should be
expanded without further rigorous research showing their
effectiveness in promoting public safety." The commission, created in
1984, is made up of seven presidential appointees who are confirmed
by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel promulgates sentencing
recommendations that become law automatically unless Congress votes
to reject them.

More than two million people are in prison in the U.S., including
more than 200,000 in the federal system, both record highs. Prisons
are responsible for some of the largest increases in state spending.
According to National Association of State Budget Officers, states
spent $44 billion in tax revenue on corrections last year, compared
with $10.6 billion in 1987. The commission and Congress have been
inching toward such a move in recent years. In 2007, a commission
guideline eased sentences handed down to crack cocaine defendants;
then, over the objections of the Justice Department, the commission
made the change retroactive. Earlier this year, Congress passed the
Second Chance Act, which focuses on helping prisoners successfully
re-enter society. This summer, the commission hosted a two-day
symposium on alternatives to prison.

"We're going to be looking at what might fit at the starting point,
before somebody is sent to prison," said District Court Judge Ricardo
Hinojosa, who is chairman of the commission. Mr. Hinojosa said the
commission will likely proceed cautiously, with considerations of
public safety being paramount. Advocates for the idea say the panel's
planned consideration is a significant step. "If the commissioners
are creating materials and making recommendations to Congress that we
should expand alternatives to incarceration in the federal system,
that will have a big impact," said Kara Gotsch, advocacy director for
the Sentencing Project, a Washington research and advocacy group for
criminal-justice policy.

Mary Price, general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a
Washington, D.C.-based sentencing advocacy group, said it became
clear the commission was turning its attention this way when it
hosted the symposium and brought in local, state and federal
criminal-justice practitioners from across the country to talk about
what they have been doing to ease prison overcrowding and cut
correction expenses.

Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation,
a California organization that focuses on crime victims, said the
foundation thinks "alternatives are generally not a good idea and
particularly for certain classes of criminals," such as felons and
repeat offenders. Mr. Rushford said the criminal justice system tried
to turn toward alternatives in the 1960s and "it took 30 years to dig
our way out, and the morgues were full during that 30-year period. We
don't need to repeat history to relearn this lesson."

Popular options discussed at the commission's symposium included drug
courts now found in every state, which are used to divert drug
offenders into treatment programs, community service and restitution
centers. These centers allow low-risk offenders to live in
residential settings while working to pay their fines and
restitution, plus their room and board. Nationally, the political
climate may be receptive to such a change. There has been little
discussion of crime on the campaign trail, a place where candidates
once vied to appear tougher than their opponents. Recent
congressional hearings have focused on the economic and social costs
of the nation's drug policies and juvenile-detention system. That's a
far cry from just three years ago, when at least one bill was
introduced that would have beefed up mandatory minimum penalties for
drug crimes.