MORE FUNDS URGED FOR ALTERNATIVES TO PRISON

The legislature's program review and investigations committee said
lawmakers should increase funding for pretrial diversion and
alternative sanction programs, and develop methods to evaluate their
performance, by using money saved by reducing the prison population.

In a study released this week, committee investigators found that the
financing of such programs has not kept pace with demand and that
criminal justice officials do not know how successful they have been
at treating offenders.

Pretrial diversion programs include alcohol and drug education,
community service and violence education. Defendants are typically
assigned to the programs as part of their court-set bail.

Alternative sanction programs include day incarceration centers and
residential treatment programs, as well as community service. Convicts
can be sentenced to these programs instead of prison.

Renee LaMark Muir, an analyst for the committee, said that for years
diversion and alternative sanction programs have been little more than
a release valve for the state's crowded prison system.

But she said the recent passage of the state prison reform bill means
that lawmakers will rely more heavily on those programs to modify the
behavior of offenders and to help convicts successfully return to
their communities.

She said state officials want to make sure that the programs are
working effectively and can meet the demands that will be placed on
them.

Appropriations committee members expect that millions of dollars will
become available from the Department of Correction's budget over the
next few years as the measures within the prison reform bill help
reduce the state's prison population, she said.

"They want to know where is the best place to put it," she
said.

LaMark Muir said although criminal justice officials have the data
that would enable them to gauge the performance of their programs,
those numbers are not kept in a manner that allows for easy evaluation.

LaMark Muir's findings are the first part of a two-part study
requested by the legislature's appropriations committee. The second
phase of the study will compare the recidivism rate of inmates who
have completed diversion and alternative sanctions programs against
inmates who have not.

"No one else has ever done a comprehensive study of this," LaMark Muir
said.