STATE NEEDS SENTENCING REFORM

The Senate has wisely given its approval to a
sentencing reform bill that largely mirrors
recommendations by a sentencing reform commission
established last year by the Legislature.

The House should follow suit on this bill that
would save taxpayers money, help the Corrections
Department run more efficiently and help equip
nonviolent offenders with the skills they need to become productive
citizens.

Provisions in this lengthy bill would further
define violent and nonviolent crimes, streamline
sentencing to ensure there is room in state
prisons for the most violent offenders, and
reduce sentences for some nonviolent crimes. In
addition, the bill would establish options for
community-based treatment and programs such as
the drug courts that have worked in Greenville.

These are worthwhile steps. Our state's prisons
are too crowded. Despite frugal fiscal
management, our prisons are facing financial
struggles in this difficult economy, and many of
the inmates in the system would be better served
by rehabilitation programs rather than prison.

The need for the changes are obvious, according
to the findings by the Sentencing Reform
Commission that were published earlier this year:

The state's prison population has increased to
more than 25,000 inmates from 9,137 inmates in 1983.

The Corrections Department's budget has increased
more than 500 percent =AD to $394.1 million from
$63.7 million =AD between 1983 and 2008.

Nearly half of the state's inmates are being held for nonviolent offenses.

If the trends continue, it could cost the state
$317 million to add the prison space needed to
house the growing inmate population.

Forty-nine percent of the state's prison inmates
are being held for nonviolent crimes, and the
percentage of offenders imprisoned for
drug-related offenses has tripled in the past 29
years, according to the sentencing commission.
The state should have a way to help drug
offenders recover rather than simply sending them
to prison. To that end, the sentencing commission
has recommended the state use programs such as
drug courts that let inmates avoid prison if they meet certain requirements.

In addition, the Department of Probation, Pardon
and Parole Services sent 3,205 inmates back to
prison in 2009 =AD 24 percent of all prison
admissions =AD for probation or parole violations.
Of those, 66 percent were sent back for
non-criminal violations. As recommended by the
Sentencing Commission, lawmakers need to
establish a way for this agency to help
noncriminal violators return to society rather
than simply send them back to prison.

Finally, sentencing reform needs to be used to
ensure there is enough room in the state's prison
system to continue to house the most violent
offenders in a way that's safe for inmates,
Corrections staff and the residents of South Carolina.

Recommendations from the Sentencing Commission
are estimated to save taxpayers $92 million in
Corrections operating costs over five years. For
example, it costs $14,500 a year to keep an
inmate in prison, but only $2,000 for supervised
probation, according to a recent report in The Greenville News .

Certainly the financial struggles of the South
Carolina Corrections Department make sentencing
reform an urgent need. Even absent such struggles
these recommendations take needed steps that deserve approval.