ALTERNATIVES NEEDED TO JAIL TIME

Martha Stewart may have complained about chaffing from the electronic ankle
bracelet required of her as part of her punishment, but her complaints
ought not deter courts from using them more frequently as an alternative to
prison.

A report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the Land of
the Free really isn't for a growing number of people.

The U.S. incarceration rate is the highest in the world. As of mid-2004,
one out of every 138 Americans was locked up in a city, county, state or
federal jail.

Growing the fastest at a rate of 6.3 percent a year is the federal prison
incarceration rate, but state and local prisons and jails still have many
more people behind bars and also continue to grow.

Increases in crime have not caused the exploding numbers of people behind
bars. Crime has declined nationwide in the past decade.

Instead, the increasing numbers in prison are the result of decades of
get-tough-against-crime policies such as three-strikes laws and mandatory
sentencing laws.

Solutions are numerous:

1. Use more alternative sentences, such as ankle bracelets, especially
among non-violent property crime offenders. Leave such criminals out of
prison where they can work to repay their victims.

2. Restore more judicial discretion in sentencing, and deal with
unnecessarily lenient judges at retention time.

3. Make better use of drug rehabilitation programs that are known to work
instead of sending drug users to prison.

4. Do a better job of identifying people with mental illnesses and treat
them before they commit crimes.

5. Spend money to prevent crime. Prevention is far cheaper than incarceration.

No one except the criminal likes crime, but locking away vast numbers of
people when alternatives exist should not be the approved public policy.