MAKE SENTENCE FIT CRIME, END OVERCROWDING

Alternative sentencing is not a free ride for drug offenders.

Pennsylvania legislators and corrections officials need to get serious
about our overcrowded prisons.

This very dangerous problem puts guards and the public at risk and can no
longer be kept on the back burner, especially when viable solutions have
been languishing in the state Legislature for several years. It's time for
our elected officials to support an alternative sentencing bill that will
help alleviate prison overpopulation, save money and enhance public safety
by reducing the chances that offenders will commit another crime.
Introduced by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, the alternative
sentencing bill would allow judges to sentence hundreds of nonviolent
criminals to drug or alcohol treatment programs instead of mandatory prison
terms. Alternative sentencing is not a free ride for drug offenders. Under
the proposal, prosecutors must first request that non-violent offenders be
evaluated for treatment. Those approved by a judge would undergo 15 to 24
months of rehabilitation, including six months in prison followed by
participation in a community-based treatment program and then an outpatient
program. Inmates who fail or are expelled can be sent to jail for their
maximum sentence. Aggressively treating non-violent drug abusers will cost
far less than sending them to jail for five-year mandatory sentences.

Experts predict that, even after subtracting the cost of treatment, state
taxpayers would save as much as $40 million each year. Currently, the state
pays more than $28,000 a year to house each of its nearly 41,000 prisoners.
Concerned about public safety, state Rep. Phyllis Mundy recently threatened
to take action if any more than 2,100 prisoners are housed at the State
Correctional Facility at Dallas in Jackson Township, where the population
continues to rise. What's frightening is that the number the Department of
Corrections is now "comfortable with," 2,100 inmates, is already more than
one and a half times the prison's capacity.

Matters are worse at Luzerne County Correctional Facility, which is
bursting at the seems with more than twice the number of inmates for which
it was designed. Wisely, our county commissioners are exploring similar
ways to get non-violent drug offenders out of lock-up and into long-term
treatment programs where they stand a chance at getting clean - and
consequently becoming less likely to re-offend.

Prison populations ballooned after a decade or so of vote-hungry
politicians enacting "tough on crime" mandatory minimum sentences, thereby
tying the hands of judges and prosecutors who now have no flexibility in
dealing with non-violent criminals. The result is more prisons, more
overcrowding and a $1.4 billion corrections budget, an increase of 68
percent over the last decade. This is a trend that can't continue.

The alternative sentencing bill is strongly backed by state Secretary of
Corrections Jeffrey Beard, a career corrections official who has run the
state prison system since 2001. His voice should be heeded. It's time to
stop spending billions of dollars to cram thousands of non-violent inmates
into our severely overpopulated prisons.