EXPORTING PRISONERS TO OTHER STATES IS WRONG APPROACH TO REDUCE CRIME

Tackle Prison Overcrowding From the Other End

The Florida Legislature passed a "just in case" bill that its
author, Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, calls a "passive safety net,"
not a mandate. But the philosophy behind SB 1722, which becomes law
July 1, is based on regressive thinking.

It would allow the corrections department to ship inmates to other
states in case prison overcrowding forces early releases here.

Fund Programs

This is a patchwork solution that misses the point. Florida should be
fighting crime at the front end -- not shipping prisoners to be
warehoused out of state.

To reduce prison beds the state has to adequately fund programs to
reduce school drop-out rates and increase job-training and life-skills
classes. It means counseling and access to needed services for
troubled families with teens who have strayed but not fallen off the
deep end yet.

It also means drug rehabilitation programs, well-resourced drug courts
and mental-health counseling for teenagers. In the long run these
preventive measures would save the state millions of dollars it now
spends housing prisoners who could be contributing members of society.

The irony is that, until budget deficits hit this year, Florida's been
on a prison-building spree even as it has cut back on programs to
reduce recidivism. The 2010 state budget is the first in a long while
with no money set aside for new prison construction.

Enter the private-prison lobbyists who have long urged lawmakers to
imitate the 15 states that export prisoners to public and private
lockups. Even though Florida's Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil isn't
a proponent of sending prisoners out of state, the private-prison
lobbyists prevailed in the Legislature.

Besides its regressive thinking, this bill is an example of bad public
policy. As Mr. McNeil points out, one method of reducing recidivism is
encouraging inmates to build ties to the community they will return to
once they're released. It's detrimental to inmates' morale -- and no
incentive to go straight -- to be incarcerated hundreds of miles from
their families, making visitations rare.

Cutting Corners

There are other concerns. The quality in private prisons is uneven, to
say the least. Some private operators have been exposed for cutting
corners by understaffing and chintzing on inmates' medical care. It
would be impossible for Florida to monitor treatment of its inmates in
a prison in, say, Tennessee.

Currently, Florida's prison population is stable at 101,000 and even a
little below previous projections. The state's total bed capacity is
around 106,000, so Florida probably won't be exporting prisoners any
time soon. That gives state leaders time to craft a smarter, more
cost-effective strategy to prevent prison overcrowding.

It's called crime prevention.