ARIZONA NEEDS TO ALTER VIEW OF INCARCERATION

Members of the Arizona Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys came
to a stark conclusion in a newly released report: Arizona is addicted
to incarceration. And without serious intervention by policy makers on
both sides of the aisle, fiscal insolvency is just around the corner.

It's a message that comes from advocates who have been working in the
trenches for the past decade to reform Arizona's bloated, inefficient
and unjust prison system.

According to a recent projection by the Arizona Department of
Corrections, our state will need 8,500 new prison beds by 2017. It
will cost $974 million just to build the new beds; operating costs
will run well over $150 million per year.

But there is something remarkable about these calls for reform. While
they're still coming from traditional advocates, they're also coming
from conservative icons such as Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich, who
are pushing to cut both crime rates and costly incarceration rates.

They are citing positive, state-driven reforms in states like South
Carolina, Mississippi and Texas to prove that it is possible to save
money and reduce prison populations without jeopardizing public safety.

Arizona, though, seems intent on taking the exact opposite approach.
We've seen our prison population triple over the past three decades.
Yet, rather than using our projected $1.3 billion budget shortfall as
an opportunity to seriously reconsider the wisdom of lengthy prison
sentences for relatively low-level, non-violent crimes like drug
possession, Gov. Jan Brewer wants to spend even more on corrections.
As corrections costs soar, it is increasingly nonsensical to
unnecessarily lock people up. This is particularly true in Arizona,
where half of the prison population is composed of non-violent offenders.

In her executive budget, the governor recommends increasing the
Department of Corrections' budget by $8.4 million, while at the same
time slashing $234 million from universities and community colleges.

In addition, Brewer is hoping to ease the pinch on taxpayers' wallets,
in part by instituting an inmate-visitor application fee. The governor
believes that the fee will generate $2.3 million, which can help cover
a mere portion of the cost of maintaining the state's 10 prison
complexes. Punishing inmates by limiting contact to only those loved
ones who can afford to pay a fee is unconstitutional and, more
importantly, ignores the importance of family connections in
successful rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates.

Arizona continues to spend dwindling resources on "warehousing" rather
than rehabilitating. But rehabilitation is a lower-cost alternative
that conservative states like Mississippi and Texas have successfully
implemented in recent years. According to an Arizona Attorneys for
Criminal Justice report, taxpayers in Mississippi saved an estimated
$200 million by rolling back truth-in-sentencing laws and restoring
the possibility of parole for many people incarcerated for drug
crimes. In Texas, they realized that they could save taxpayers
millions and avoid the costs of building more prisons by expanding
drug-treatment programs and reducing the number of repeat offenses
resulting from drug crimes - without affecting public safety.

Opponents of reform frequently invoke the need for public safety to
frighten the public away from even basic correctional reforms. But the
reform efforts in these other states prove that smart reforms go
hand-in-hand with public safety.

Our officials keep telling us that we are in fiscal dire straits. Some
Arizona lawmakers have introduced bills that would lead to critical,
prudent correctional reforms that could save us millions while
promoting public safety and increased fairness. Obstruction-minded
lawmakers, however, have vowed to stop these bills at the door. No
discussion, no debate - nothing.

Legislative leadership needs to let these bills move forward and get a
meaningful debate. We can no longer ignore the real costs of our
flawed incarceration system. Arizona just can't afford it.