A BURGEONING POPULATION IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Distressing new figures add urgency to the need to reform America's
criminal-justice system.

The U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics
(www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ppus02.htm) reported recently that 6.73 million Americans
were jailed, on probation or on parole at the end of 2002. That's up 150,700 over the 2001
figure.

These new figures offer a more complete picture than provided in a
recent report showing that more than 2.1 million inmates, a record,
were in federal, state or local custody last year.

Missouri and Kansas are part of the problem. At the end of last year,
106,500 people were either incarcerated or on probation or parole in
Missouri. In Kansas the figure was 34,000. The Missouri figure was up
2.3 percent over 2001 while the Kansas figure was up 4.9 percent.

Although the crime rate has been dropping in recent years - partly
because of the increase in imprisonment - the growth in the numbers of
people in prison or on probation or parole is unsustainable.

Often probation is a sensible alternative to incarceration for
nonviolent offenders. But the system for managing the mounting numbers
of probationers and parolees is under severe stress.

America's system for dealing with crime has undergone a historic and
ill-conceived shift from rehabilitation to a greater emphasis on
retribution. As a result, we are imprisoning people who should be
making restitution to society in different, less expensive, ways. As
they do that, they should get the help they need to become more
productive members of society.

Mandatory sentencing laws, coupled with drug abusers who often need
treatment more than they need imprisonment, are adding to the
expensive pressures on prisons and parole systems.

Congress as well as state and local lawmakers must pay attention to
these disturbing statistics and begin to create a criminal justice
system that makes much more sense. A new system should emphasize
rehabilitation and cost effectiveness, and it should seek to end
racial injustices and inequalities.