JAIL TIME

A New Attitude Dawns

Most of us can remember well the days when "oelaw 'n' order" was the
clarion call of society and government. Legislatures fell over
themselves mandating harsher punishment for criminals, mainly longer
jail sentences, giving judges less latitude for judging.

Lock-'em-up types thought throwing away the key would dissuade
criminal activity. Instead, jails got crowded, straining public
budgets at all levels.

In the past 40 years a few fledgling alternative sentencing programs
have struggled to life, such as Reality House here in Columbia. More
recently state government has become more serious, reducing sentences
and creating alternative courts for dealing with drug and alcohol
offenders with intent to help them recover and stay out of prison.

Yet last month the Missouri Department of Corrections said 30,771
inmates are in jail, and the department is budgeted for $660 million
in the coming fiscal year.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ray Price Jr. recently said we must get
over the idea long jail time makes the offender better. "oeIt
doesn't. We have to be smarter about what we are doing."

To that end, Gov. Jay Nixon this week highlighted the formation of
the Missouri Working Group on Sentencing and Corrections, co-chaired
by Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, and Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount
Vernon. Nixon said the task force is looking at all aspects of the
criminal justice system in an effort to reduce costs and hold
offenders responsible for their actions. The working group, which has
been meeting since June, is expected to complete a report in time for
lawmakers to act on it during the 2012 legislative session.

The task force is supported by the Public Safety Performance Project,
which is operated by the Pew Center for the States. Pew has been
studing incarceration, probation and parole, recidivism and other
factors, and will provide technical assistance and data analysis.

In Arkansas a similar study led to revamping sentencing laws, using
probation and parole more often. Missouri might be somewhat ahead of
Arkansas in this respect, but we have room for improvement.

On the face of it, hard jail time should be the last resort. It is
the most expensive, least effective option, justifiable only when
nothing else will work. Of course, sometimes this is the case, and
judges should be left alone to make these calls when necessary, but
state policy can encourage judges to use alternative methods.

Here in Boone County, alternative courts and lower-security
monitoring are more widely used than in most areas. It will be
interesting to see if the task force will highlight the effectiveness
of programs in various parts of the state.

As mentioned here often enough to cause a collective sigh, legalizing
drugs is the most powerful answer to crime and incarceration problems
in the United States and supplier nations, but nothing of the sort
seems imminent. Meanwhile, maybe Pew and the governor's task force
can suggest helpful ways to react to the flood of inmates our
prohibition policies cause.