REFORM JUSTICE SYSTEM

Criminal-justice reform has long been a cause championed by civil
libertarians. Now that business leaders, taxpayer watchdogs and
law-enforcement veterans in Florida have joined in, Gov. Charlie Crist
and legislators have no good excuse for ignoring this imperative.

A group calling itself the Coalition for Smart Justice addressed an
open letter last week to Mr. Crist and legislators calling for
comprehensive reform in the state prison system and corrections
policies. The coalition is made up of business, academic, religious,
government, law-enforcement and social-service leaders.

As the coalition argues, Florida spends too much to put nonviolent
offenders in prison. By diverting them to cheaper and better
alternatives, the state could free more dollars to invest in programs
to rehabilitate violent offenders behind bars before their release.
Taxpayers and public safety both would benefit.

Signatories on the letter include Barney Bishop of Associated
Industries of Florida, Dominic Calabro of Florida TaxWatch, three
former state attorneys general, a former corrections commissioner and
the head of the state's police benevolent association.

Florida does a bang-up job of putting away convicted criminals. Its
current prison population of almost 101,000 has jumped nearly a
quarter in the past five years. Rising crime explains part of the
increase, but so do tougher state sentencing laws.

With the average cost of keeping an inmate in prison more than $20,000
a year, the bill for running the system tops $2 billion annually. And
if the inmate population keeps growing at its current pace, the cost
of building and operating new prisons will siphon billions more from
taxpayers. Meanwhile, basic services like education, health care and
environmental protection have been on the chopping block in
Tallahassee.

Many people would argue that public safety is worth almost any price
But Florida's prison system doesn't do a very good job of protecting
citizens once inmates get out. Of those released, a third commit
crimes again within three years. Within five years, 65 percent do.

The state's juvenile-justice system, another target for reform from
the coalition, turns out to be an apprenticeship for the big house.
About half the kids incarcerated in the system wind up in prison as
adults.

Given the growing drain on tax dollars from the prison system and its
shortcomings in keeping ex-cons from re-offending, it's no wonder
business and law-enforcement leaders have joined the call for reform.

Currently, about half the inmates packing Florida's prisons were
convicted for nonviolent crimes. Steering them ""especially the ones
whose crimes stem from drug addiction or mental-health problems "" to
less expensive but more effective alternatives would diminish the need
to build new prisons at $100 million a pop.

State legislators got a good start on this goal this year when they
directed circuit judges to avoid sending nonviolent criminals to
prison and bolstered the state's drug courts. After taking these
steps, lawmakers put off $300 million worth of prison
construction.

More efforts to divert nonviolent offenders from prison could make
more money available to beef up programs like education, drug
treatment and mental-health counseling for those violent offenders who
belong behind bars "" services that would make them more likely to be
law-abiding, productive members of society when they are released.
Over time, that also would bring down the prison population.

For years, Florida legislators have been more interested in being
tough than smart on crime. As a state senator, "Chain-gang Charlie"
Crist cultivated a reputation for cracking down on criminals.

But Florida has long since run out of money to pump into a prison
system that burdens taxpayers yet falls short on protecting public
safety.