ALTERNATIVES TO BUILDING PRISONS

Lock 'Em Up And Throw Away The Key Isn't The Only Option For Rehabilitating
Virginia Offenders.

When state leaders appropriately reformed the parole system in the
mid-'90s, Virginians were assured that violent offenders would do their time.

As part of the reform, the state was willing to divert less-serious,
nonviolent offenders from prisons into other rehabilitative programs.

Virginia should summon that response now as rumblings of a need for more
low-to medium-security prison beds crop up.

The more sensible and cost-effective alternative would be to direct
offenders guilty of less-serious crimes to drug courts, work release and
community-based programs.

Such programs allow offenders to undergo rehabilitation through means other
than locking them up at more than $20,000 a year.

The alternatives would put fewer prisoners in jail while at the same time
giving them the rehabilitation they need to safeguard the public.

At a time when Virginia budget constraints have forced cutbacks in
correctional staff at existing units, the state should pursue alternatives
to the more costly building of new facilities.

Crowding at Botetourt Correctional Unit and other low-to medium-security
institutions has prompted the Virginia Department of Corrections to suggest
building one and possibly two new prisons in Western Virginia.

State officials say a projected increase in the state's current 31,000
prison population to 45,000 by the end of the decade will require more
incarceration space.

But before yielding to correction officials' recommendations, Virginians
should demand that state leaders strongly consider other ways to
rehabilitate criminals.

Some 25 percent of Virginia prisoners are behind bars for nonviolent drug
offenses such as low-level dealing and possession. Studies suggest many
nonviolent convicts would respond to alternatives other than incarceration.

Rather than build more prisons to warehouse inmates, Virginia should put
more effort into developing alternatives that will keep nonviolent
offenders out of jail.