PRISON FOR NONVIOLENT CRIMES WASTES MONEY

To the Editor:

It's hard to pay taxes when you know your tax monies are being wasted.
That's why I was among the members of Families Against Mandatory Minimums
handing out literature to taxpayers mailing their tax forms Wednesday.

Some 55 percent of federal prisoners serve mandatory minimum drug
sentences, which are determined solely by the weight and type of drug or
the presence of a firearm during a felony offense. Nearly 88 percent are
nonviolent offenders, and a majority are drug abusers. Yet five-, 10- and
20-year sentences are commonplace.

Taxpayers pay dearly: $22,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner. But there
are better and less expensive ways to deal with the drug problem.
Sentencing guidelines, which already exist, prevent wildly disparate
sentences for similar crimes and permit sentence adjustments based on the
culpability of the offender.

In addition, there's drug treatment. A 2003 study shows that drug-addicted,
nonviolent felony offenders with five prior drug arrests and an average of
four years behind bars achieved significantly lower recidivism rates and
higher employment rates through a drug treatment program than comparable
offenders who were sent to prison. The cost? Half that of sending an
offender to prison.

We need to change our laws so that the punishment fits the crime and so we
address drug abuse and spend our tax monies more cost-effectively.

Michael Lemery, Morgantown