PRISONS SWELL, THE COST SOARS

Lawmakers Must Reform System

South Carolina's "lock 'em up and throw away the key" mentality has come
home to haunt taxpayers who must shell out about $300 million a year to run
the prison system. While the state prison system is one of the most
cost-efficient in the nation, the $12,500 per-year cost for each inmate
still amounts to a whopping sum of money. The price tag would call for
reform in flush years, but in cash-strapped years this demands reform.

Jon Ozmint, S.C. Department of Corrections director, and Gov. Mark Sanford
are offering several opportunities for reforms within the prison system to
save money and hire needed guards, but lawmakers and other elected
officials don't seem to be too interested in change.

Ozmint has proposed alternative sentencing as a way to reduce the current
prison population of more than 24,000 inmates. As 2003 ended, the
population was 1,100 more than in 2002.

Prison officials estimate that over the next four years the prison
population will surge by nearly one-third. Without alternative sentencing
the $300 million cost will be $400 million or more in operating costs.
Capital costs for buildings will be even more.

Yet, the idea of alternative sentencing may be all but dead this
legislative year because of opposition from the state's solicitors. House
leaders concurred Wednesday that solicitors don't want this because they
have to face angry victims in their home districts, and they must stand for
re-election -- just as senators and House members must.

In spite of this setback, Ozmint is moving forward with a proposal to save
several million dollars. He has plans to privatize health care, which could
reduce costs while improving service. The Department of Corrections spends
about $7 per prisoner per day on health care or roughly $60 million a year.
That's not exorbitantly out of line with other states, but a $1 reduction
per inmate per day would result in more than $8.5 million per year in savings.

Gov. Sanford, in his State of the State address Wednesday, advocated
spending $2.5 million more each year on inmate education. This would be
money well spent so that inmates may be better qualified to find jobs once
they are paroled or complete their sentence.

Nearly 63 percent of the state's 24,000 inmates lack high school diplomas
or the equivalent. According to the Associated Press, U.S. Justice
Department figures show about 68 percent of state prison inmates nationwide
do not have a high school diploma.

It is "crazy to continue sending folks out of a criminal justice system
with no better educational leg to stand on and expect good results,"
Sanford told legislators Wednesday.

South Carolinians can't allow the "lock 'em up mentality" to stand in the
way of alternative sentencing for the estimated 50 percent of prisoners who
committed nonviolent crimes -- unless they are prepared to pay an
increasingly staggering cost.

Lawmakers must be willing to face political heat as well as the fiscal.