THINKING OUTSIDE THE PRISON CELL

Virginia should aggressively expand alternatives to prison building, such
as intense supervision and drug and mental health counseling.

As a businessman by training, Gov. Mark Warner should leap at this
dollar-wise concept:

Instead of just spending more, spend smarter.

The General Assembly should like the idea, too.

The problem, however, is that the concept should be applied to a
sacred cow of Virginia politics: crime. Persuaded by former Gov.
George Allen that the state was soft on crime and suffering for its
laxity, Virginia went to great lengths in the recent past to put more
people away for longer periods.

It also spent an estimated $2 billion in the 1980s and 1990s for new
prisons to house them.

But now it needs yet more cells. Despite falling crime rates, the
state prison population is expected to grow by 4 percent a year in the
next five years, thanks in large part to earlier get-tough policies.

In response, state officials propose building at least one and
possibly two new prisons for a total cost of as much as $141 million,
and are studying the possibility of a third. Two existing prisons
would be expanded.

In addition, Warner's latest budget provides $100 million for coping
with prison capacity problems, including the loss of revenue from
out-of-state inmates for which there is no longer room.

Wiser, cheaper alternatives exist. They would put fewer people behind
bars but could still achieve the crucial public safety goals of
prevention and correction.

A quarter of the state's 35,000 prisoners are doing time for
nonviolent drug offenses, including low-level dealing and possession.
The federal government estimates that 16 percent of the national
prison population is mentally ill. Virginia has returned record
numbers of struggling probationers to prison for parole violations
such as failed drug tests or failing to keep an appointment.

Studies suggest that many of these men and women could be dealt with
just as safely and effectively without the expense of confinement.
Expanded drug and mental health counseling, intense probation
supervision and support for released inmates through programs such as
Virginia CARES (now operating on a shoestring) could have the same
effect on crime rates as prison time at far less cost.

With America's 11th-highest incarceration rate and far better uses for
its money, Virginia should start thinking outside the cell.