SENTENCING LAWS NEED AN OVERHAUL

A Senate committee has begun examining the state's prison sentencing
guidelines, questioning whether inmates are incarcerated too long.

That flies in the face of Sanford Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough's view. In
a recent presentation to City Council, the chief saw a different problem
with the guidelines: too many drug dealers are getting probation for their
first, second, and sometimes third, offense.

The state's Structured Sentencing Law, which took effect for crimes
committed on or after Oct. 1, 1994, was intended to accomplish three things.

First, sentencing policies should be consistent and certain: Offenders
convicted of similar offenses, who have similar prior records, should
generally receive similar sentences.

Second, sentencing policies should be truthful: The sentence length imposed
by the judge should bear a close and consistent relationship to the
sentence length actually served.

Third, sentencing policies should set resource priorities: Prisons and
jails should be prioritized for violent and repeat offenders, and
intermediate and community punishments should be first used for non-violent
offenders with little or no prior record.

While local police are frustrated by the lack of prison time, especially
for drug pushers, state legislators are more concerned that few inmates,
even if they are well behaved and complete rehabilitation programs, appear
to serve only the minimum amount of their sentences.

Their worries stem from a rising prison population and how to pay for it.
The state's inmate population stands at 33,653, up by more than 2,200 from
three years ago. Even though legislators have approved new prisons, the
population is still higher than the intended capacity and projections show
it rising even higher in the future.

Clearly, the state's sentencing guidelines aren't working on a variety of
levels. The rules were designed to keep more dangerous criminals in prison
longer and release nonviolent offenders more quickly. This isn't working
for small towns like Sanford where the drug trade is flourishing and is
behind a large portion of break-ins and burglaries.

The Senate committee needs to take a closer look at punishment for first-
and second-time offenders as well as rules governing more dangerous criminals.