HELP RELEASED INMATES TO STAY OUT OF PRISON

New Approaches Seek To Protect Public Safety And Mend Broken
Lives

When police found Tom Kearney shot to death on the sidewalk one
afternoon in April, the prime suspect was Marshall Ray Nicholson.
Three weeks earlier, he shot Kearney in the foot and investigators
believe he'd come back to finish the job. Nicholson, who had been out
of prison only 17 months, had spent more than 13 of his 36 years
behind bars.

Nicholson should never have been let out, you say. And you're probably
right. But that argument misses one critical fact: At some point,
sooner or later, virtually everyone in prison gets out.

With "three strikes" and other mandatory sentencing laws keeping many
offenders behind bars longer than ever, America's prison population
has pushed past 2 million. In 1990, North Carolina had 19,000 men and
women in prison. That population is up to nearly 34,000 today.

Whatever you think of those numbers, the fact is that more than 95
percent of inmates -- all but the very worst of the worst -- will be
released back to our communities. Most are ill-prepared for life on
the outside or are addicted to drugs. Caught in the notorious
"revolving door," many commit new crimes or break the rules of their
release and cycle back in and out of taxpayer-funded jails, courts and
prisons.

Even as the inmate counts climbed over the past 20 years, few worried
what would happen when the sentences were completed. But now, with
nearly 650,000 inmates nationally hitting the streets each year --
23,500 here in North Carolina -- the issue is too big to ignore.
Police, prosecutors, crime victim advocates and lawmakers of both
parties are embracing new strategies for prisoner "re-entry" that seek
to protect public safety and mend broken lives.

After decades of experience on the street and in clinics, we have
learned that the best strategy to break the cycle of addiction and
crime is not based on either punishment or rehabilitation but on a
strong mix of both. Whether your job duties include responding to 911
calls or counseling addicts through relapse, the bottom-line mission
is the same: creating safe communities.

North Carolina, like other states, is creating such hybrid approaches.
At the center of the state's effort is a program called Treatment
Accountability for Safer Communities. An alliance between community
corrections and drug treatment providers, TASC operates in all 100
counties. It keeps drug-addicted offenders under tight supervision
with a carrot-and-stick combination: a comprehensive range of drug
treatment services and frequent urine testing .

Cutting crime by returning prisoners has become such a focus that the
public health system recently made criminal offenders one of several
priority groups for access to drug treatment slots. There still is a
treatment shortage, but last year 7,000 of 9,000 offenders in the TASC
program were able to get treatment services. If we close this gap, the
payoff to public safety and to taxpayers would be enormous. Studies
across the country confirm that strong treatment and accountability
programs can cut recidivism among drug offenders in half, at a cost to
taxpayers that is a fraction of the $21,000 tab for a year behind bars.

An upcoming report from the Council of State Government's Re-Entry
Policy Council and the bipartisan Second Chance Act of 2004 just
introduced in Congress both recognize the soundness of re-entry
investment, calling for smarter funding strategies and better
coordination between government agencies. The federal legislation
would create new grant programs for states willing to design
comprehensive re-entry plans, and we urge our congressional delegation
to join in the bipartisan push for its passage.

Intervention programs like TASC can make a dramatic difference in
offenders' lives, but ultimately, communities must step up to the
plate. Citizens can provide support for addiction recovery, literacy
and other programs through religious and civic organizations, and by
joining with police and corrections officers to keep a watchful eye on
offenders' behavior. Employers can explore financial incentives and
other supportive services which can facilitate the hiring or training
of offenders, and public housing providers can take a second look at
laws that allow them more discretion in renting to offenders than they
might realize.

Offenders like Marshall Nicholson bear responsibility for their own
situations, and kicking them out of the prison gate with a bus ticket
and $25 in pocket change has a powerful vengeful appeal. But with
thousands and thousands of inmates like them coming out each year, we
need to do everything we can to stop them from either claiming new
victims or becoming yet another "recycled" inmate.

Darrel Stephens is chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Sonya Brown is director of Justice Systems Innovations for the state
Department of Health and Human Services.