SPENDING MONEY ON PRISONS ISN'T POPULAR, BUT IT IS NECESSARY

South Carolina cannot continue to lock up more people for longer periods of
time while it simultaneously cuts prison budgets. State lawmakers need to
realize that they can't demand that the Corrections Department simply trim
its budget to meet across-the-board cuts.

In the past four years, the state prison system's population has grown by
5,000 more inmates but, because of state budget cuts, it has 600 fewer
guards.

That kind of trend will lead to problems, including violence. Prisons
Director Jon Ozmint reports that assaults in prison, on inmates and
employees, have risen sharply. And the number of escapes has tripled.

Ozmint is making a public push for more money to operate the state's
corrections facilities. But he faces a difficult battle.

The state has no money. Lawmakers face a shortfall of about $1 billion. They
have to cut state agency budgets. But they must also realize that they can't
treat the prison system as if it were any other state bureaucracy.

The prison system, like the public schools, has little ability to control
the number of people it serves. It is sent inmates by the court system, and
it is forced to house them humanely.

But it is politically popular to insist on more money for schools. There is
no great constituency demanding more money for prisons. So the potentially
dangerous situation in our prisons grows worse.

Lawmakers need to recognize these facts and take a more thoughtful approach
to the prison system than simply demand that it take similar cuts to every
other department.

It would make even more sense for lawmakers to examine the number of inmates
in the state prison system. There are alternatives to incarceration for
nonviolent criminals and those convicted of drug offenses.

Spartanburg's drug court recently graduated its first offender. Prosecutors
believe that such courts can be used to push drug addicts to successfully
complete treatment for their addictions. But these courts also may fall
victim to state and federal budget cuts.

It is clear that the state will have to either fund prisons or alternative
punishments and methods of dealing with those who break the law. It may not
be politically popular, but neither will a violent prison uprising or the
new crimes of escaped inmates.

As they craft the state budget, lawmakers must realize that the state's
obligations are not necessarily those expenses that they can trumpet in
campaign speeches. The state has as real an obligation to fund prisons as it
does to fund schools.