SMART ALTERNATIVE

GOV. NATHAN Deal is on the right track with his proposal to divert
nonviolent drug offenders from prison to alternative programs.

That's what Chatham County has been doing for about a decade, and the
track record is encouraging. It makes sense to try to replicate it
across Georgia.

All we get from locking up crackheads, meth users and other addicts -
besides a hefty bill - is 17 percent of our prison population who
become better criminals when they are eventually released.

Why lock people up at public expense if you can clean them up and get
them to become productive citizens?

The alternative court programs may cost money to establish. But if
officials do a good job at screening those who get accepted, it
should pay dividends in the long run.

A regime of treatment, fines, counseling and frequent check-ins with
probation officers - as directed by a set of specialized drug, DUI
and mental health courts - is a better deal not only for offenders,
but also for taxpayers.

For the offender, it offers an opportunity to develop a healthy,
productive lifestyle and avoid future run-ins with the law.

Taxpayers will see two major benefits. First, those whose punishment
occurs outside a prison are more likely to be buying their own food,
covering their own rent, working and paying taxes. In short, pulling
their own weight.

That's important. According to Mr. Deal, it costs $3 million a day
(over $1 billion a year) to run the Georgia Department of Corrections
under current legislation. That's money that's not spent on better
schools or to pay for health care.

A second benefit is the reduced likelihood that worsening drug habits
will drive offenders to commit serious crimes such as robbery or assault.

Granted, if someone chooses to commit a crime, they should be
prepared to do the time. Thus drug courts aren't about coddling
people. Instead, they're about punishing people the smart way to
change behavior. And we're not talking about killers. We're talking
about people who are killing themselves.

If the governor can replicate statewide the success of such
"therapeutic courts" in Chatham, it can be life-changing. Out of the
more than 300 "graduates" of Chatham's drug court since 2001, well
over 200 have stayed clean and out of trouble.

For the governor's plan to become reality, lawmakers must begin to
shift funds from prisons to probation, for instance, and make changes
to the state's mandatory sentencing laws. Lawmakers should get
cracking - and Chatham County's delegation should help lead the way

Spending millions of dollars we don't have to keep every single
violator in Georgia behind bars isn't being "hard on crime." It's
being soft in the head.