FEEDING FAILURE

The most unsustainable growth in Florida is the growth in state prison
cells. Florida's inmate population now tops 100,000, and is on track
to keep growing. Incarceration costs $20,000 per year per inmate.

And here's the scary part: About 90 percent of the inmates now under
lock and key will eventually get out. And one out of three of them
will commit a new crime within three years of release.

Even "Chain Gang" Charlie Crist now thinks the state's "lock 'em up
and throw away the key" corrections philosophy doesn't work.

"I think justice calls for many facets," Gov. Crist told The Miami
Herald this week. "But I also think if there are individuals who can
turn their lives around and get a second chance, especially youth,
that's a worthy cause."

Crist is recommending no funds for new prisons this year and wants to
divert more money into "re-entry centers," DOC facilities that help
soon-to-be released inmates get job training, learn life skills, seek
employment and so on. It's a good investment: Even a one percent
reduction in the recidivism rate could mean a savings of $8 million a
year, according to corrections authorities.

"Particularly in austere budget times, re-entry (programs) really make
good business and public safety sense," Corrections Secretary Walt
McNeil told the Herald.

A shift in state corrections policies from simply warehousing
prisoners to rehabilitation and preparation for release is long
overdue. Prisons are, above all, monuments to failure. It's better to
invest in success.