JUSTICE KENNEDY IS CORRECT TO PUSH FOR SENTENCING DISCRETION AND ALTERNATIVES

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has added his voice to those of
the American Bar Association and the people in calling for alternatives to
long prison terms.

A commission of the Bar Association has issued a report urging that judges be given more discretion in handing
down sentences and in urging that alternatives to incarceration be used for
nonviolent crimes.

Kennedy announced last week that he agrees with the proposal. He noted that
the nation's use of long prison terms means that "our resources are
misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long."

In fact, Dennis Archer, the Bar Association's president, pointed out that
the 2.1 million people in American jails and prisons represent a quarter of
the world's incarcerated population.

The association and Kennedy are right. Incarceration is expensive and often
destroys the families of those sent to prison. It should be reserved for
violent felons.

But mandatory sentencing guidelines often push judges to hand down long
sentences for nonviolent offenders.

Judges should be given more discretion to devise a sentence that fits the
character of the offense and the circumstances of the offender.

And states and the federal government should make more use of alternative
sentences like house arrest and electronic monitoring and restitution.
These measures can restrict the freedom of nonviolent criminals and punish
them while allowing them to keep their families intact and to work to pay
for the cost of their own punishment.

Placing more criminals in jail is stretching the ability of states to pay
for prisons. Prisons are overcrowded, and most states cannot afford to
build new ones and maintain them.

Politicians also should recognize that the political climate no longer
demands that they adopt a lock-them-away attitude. In the unscientific
Voice of the Voter survey conducted by the Herald-Journal and NewsChannel
7, 77 percent of respondents stated they prefer that the state use
alternative sentences for nonviolent offenders rather than spending more
money on prisons.

State and federal lawmakers should revise sentencing laws to make better
use of public resources, reserving long prison terms for violent criminals.