BILL WOULD CUT PRISON TIME, SAVE MONEY

Taxpayers would save between $10 million and $15 million by allowing about
2,000 prisoners serving minimum mandatory drug sentences the opportunity
for parole after completing two-thirds of their maximum sentences, a state
senator said yesterday.

Senator Cynthia Stone Creem, a Newton Democrat, said her bill, which aims
to release "low-level" nonviolent drug offenders and traffickers, is not an
attempt to eliminate mandatory sentencing, but an effort to save taxpayer
dollars. Creem's bill, which has cosponsors in the House and is currently
before the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice, would allow inmates serving
minimum mandatory drug penalties to seek parole after completing two-thirds
of their sentences. About 650 inmates statewide would be immediately
eligible for parole, according to Creem's office.

The president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said the bill is an
important step toward reform, although minimum mandatory sentencing for
drug offenders is not the only reason state prison spending is high. "There
is a cost to the taxpayers for this policy," said Michael J. Widmer. "This
[bill] is a baby step, but it's a critical first step." Widmer estimated
the cost per year for one prison bed at $45,000. He said broader reform of
sentencing guidelines, in addition to Creem's bill, could yield as much as
$100 million, if implemented. Those reforms, which were recommended by the
Massachusetts Sentencing Commission, would mandate comparable sentences for
similar crimes, rather than leaving it up to a judge's discretion,
according to a foundation report from November 2003.

Senator Thomas M. McGee, cochairman of the Joint Committee on Criminal
Justice, said he hopes the bill will move through committee soon. McGee, a
Lynn Democrat, said minimum mandatory sentencing disproportionately affects
minorities. The laws have a similar impact on women, too, according to the
executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services. Leslie
Walker, executive director for the organization, said one-third of about
750 women incarcerated at MCI-Framingham are being held on minimum
mandatory drug sentences.

She cited Alabama as another state that has passed similar legislation.
"Massachusetts would not be in the vanguard if this bill was enacted,"
Walker said. "Twenty-five other states have passed legislation modifying
mandatory minimum reform statutes." A spokeswoman for the Executive Office
of Public Safety declined to comment on the bill, but said Lieutenant
Governor Kerry Healey plans to release a report next week detailing the
administration's criminal justice strategies.