INCARCERATION LOBBY DESERVES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Here's a question to those who gathered in Sparta last week to
criticize Gov. Jim Doyle's public safety budget:

Why does the United States, with just 5 percent of the world's
population, house 25 percent of the world's prisoners?

Led by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, several public officials
blasted Doyle's budget, which calls for the early release of
non-violent prisoners and cutting back on supervision and parole.
They levelled the criticism despite a huge state budget deficit and a
corrections budget already grown at a staggering pace. Consider that:

*In 1996, Wisconsin spent $360 million corrections. It was $1 billion in 2008.

*In 1982, one out of every 437 Wisconsin residents was in jail or
prison. In 2007, it was one out of 109.

Wisconsin, of course, isn't alone in its appetite to throw people in
prison and keep them there for a long time. The United States
incarcerates more people per capita than any nation in the world, but
it's not anywhere near the safest nation in the world. America, for
example, has the world's 24th highest homicide rate. That's higher
than every country in Western Europe, which imprisons a much smaller
percentage of its people.

It's time to ask some very tough questions about our criminal justice
system, including:

* Do prisons perform the function of keeping us safe, or are they
finishing schools that leave prisoners even more dangerous when
they're released?

* Is our criminal justice system one that's based on retribution at
the expense of rehabilitation, and does the emphasis on the former
impose unnecessary costs on taxpayers and diminish public safety?

* Given that crime is a tough racket and criminals, especially those
who specialize in property crimes, burn out around age 35, does it
really make sense to keep thousands of offenders incarcerated into
their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, truth-in-sentencing laws notwithstanding?

* Are too many things against the law? Is there any reason, for
example, for anyone to serve a day of jail time for selling marijuana?

If stuffing people into prison guaranteed safety, then America would
be the safest country in the world. We aren't, and it's the
incarceration lobby, not the governor, that deserves the political hot seat.