COALITION PUSHES FOR ALTERNATIVES TO MORE PRISONS

Former Sheriff Wells Scoffs at Calls to Halt Prison Construction

A call by Florida's most powerful business lobby to halt prison
construction and reform the criminal justice system is gaining
surprising traction among policy makers in the wake of a deepening
budget crisis and growing evidence that building new prison beds will
not reduce crime.

Four months after the head of Associated Industries of Florida
stunned lawmakers with his plea to slow prison growth, a who's-who of
business, religious and political leaders are asking Gov. Charlie
Crist to consider alternatives to incarceration for non-violent
offenders, particularly drug addicts.

Crist and state lawmakers this week received an "open letter" from
opinion-makers calling for a "bold and serious conversation about
justice reform."

The statement was signed by three former state attorneys general --
Jim Smith, Bob Butterworth and Richard Doran -- along with retired
Department of Corrections secretary James McDonough and the heads of
the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida Catholic Conference.

"At a time when Florida is in serious recession and facing a deep
state budget crisis, the $2 billion-plus budget of the Florida
Department of Corrections has grown larger; and without reform, that
budget will continue to grow at a pace that crowds out other
mission-critical state services such as education, human service
needs, and environmental protection," the group wrote.

Calling itself the Coalition for Smart Justice, the group is asking
state leaders to bolster education, drug and alcohol treatment and
faith-based and character-building programs both within the state
prison system and in community settings as an alternative to prison.

Coalition members also want Crist to "immediately implement" a bill
passed by the Legislature in 2008 that created "the much needed"
Correctional Policy Advisory Council to offer new directions for
criminal justice administration.

Staying the course, coalition members wrote, will lead to "too many
non-violent individuals being incarcerated, too many prisons needing
to be built at astounding public cost (and) too many young people
moving from the juvenile justice system into the adult justice system."

At the root of the state's failures, the coalition says, is the
unwillingness of lawmakers to invest in programs -- such as job
training, education and substance-abuse treatment -- that can break
the cycle of crime and reduce recidivism.

McDonough, the state's former drug czar and prisons chief, said
Florida can avoid the need to build a new $100 million prison each
year by spending one-fifth that amount on drug treatment. "The math
is irrefutable," McDonough said. "That's $100 million right there
that you don't have to spend immediately."

That's an assertion former Manatee sheriff Charlie Wells scoffs at,
as a veteran of the debate over the effectiveness of prisons in
reducing and deterring crime. Wells said he is concerned the movement
to turn the state away from building new prisons will lead to the
repealing of legislation he pioneered in the 1990s that mandates
inmates serve at least 85 percent of their prison terms.

"I think it is a bad mistake to be flirting with the idea of cutting
back building prisons under the guise of looking for ways to cut
costs," said Wells. "If we stop building prisons, overcrowding will
force legislators to repeal that law, which would be a serious mistake."

Wells said advocates of diversion programs for non-violent offenders
in lieu of prison time often do not tell the whole story about
offenders sentenced to prison.

"That argument has been there since I started fighting this battle.
But what always gets lost in translation is the length of someone's
record who is finally is sent to prison. Someone who is going to
prison for a so-called 'minor offense' has most likely been arrested
a significant number of times," said Wells. "So I think it is absurd
to start chipping away at the most significant aspect of crime
prevention, which is sentencing and punishment."

Gretl Plessinger, DOC's spokeswoman, said the equation is far more
complicated in response to the coalition's claims. Since the prison
system runs on a five-year cycle based on "strategic projections,"
the corrections agency cannot simply "stop construction on a dime."