WE'VE LOCKED THEM UP. NOW WHAT?

One of the results of the growing methamphetamine problem in Minnesota
and Wisconsin is a burgeoning prison population. In Minnesota, it has
increased 45 percent, from about 5,200 prisoners in 1999 to about
8,300 today.

More important, the number of state prisoners serving time for drug
offenses has ballooned by 749 percent since 1990, with meth accounting
for much of that. The trend is fueled by tougher sentencing guidelines
that have resulted in longer prison stays for offenders and elevated
some previous misdemeanor offenses to felonies.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently proposed a plan that would not only
increase sentencing for meth-makers, but increase funding for
treatment programs.

This is a welcome change because the pattern in the past has been to
increase incarceration without a corresponding increase in funds for
treatment programs.

Currently, the Corrections Department has about 800 beds for drug and
sex offender treatment. At best, the department can treat about 1,800
inmates a year. And the problem isn't going to go away.

According to Deputy Commissioner Dennis Benson, Minnesota prisons take
in about 3,400 new inmates every year; of those, about 65 percent have
serious drug-dependence issues. Meth addicts, who typically take
longer to recover from their addiction, further exacerbate the problem.

The Corrections Department has done a pretty good job of funding
treatment programs at lower-level facilities like Lino Lakes. The
theory is that if prisoners get treatment closer to their release
date, they're less likely to fall off the wagon - and back into old
habits - once they're released.

Corrections is also championing transitional and community-based
treatment programs that have had early success at stemming recidivism
among addicts.

But the most gaping hole in prisoner drug treatment is at
maximum-security facilities like Stillwater and Oak Park Heights,
which house prisoners who will never migrate to lower-level facilities
like Lino Lakes but eventually will be released.

"It's a major problem," said Benson.

To address that, Benson and Commissioner Joan Fabian are championing a
proposal from Gov. Pawlenty that would dedicate $3 million for
expanded sex-offender treatment at maximum-security prisons. We'd
agree that it's an area that needs more focus.

For readers who might wonder why they should care about a bunch of
addicted criminals, we'd quote Deputy Commissioner Benson:

"It's a fact of life that most of these guys are going to eventually
get out," he said. "What you have to ask yourself is, 'What kind of
person do you want walking out of here?'"

We think he has a good point.