ALTERNATIVES TO LOWER PRISON COSTS

GOV. Brad Henry's projected $500 million budget deficit is due in part to
the cost of confining 15,500 people in state prisons. To cut prison costs,
and avoid the appearance of being soft on crime, some states are turning to
dead-end fixes. Other states, however, are counting on alternatives to
incarceration to reduce prison costs. The cost to keep each Oklahoma inmate
behind bars is $44.62 a day, or $16,000 a year. Add in other operating and
capital costs and you get a prison bill of $408 million a year. What to do?

Dead-end Fixes. Illinois cut inmate education programs to save $5 million a
year, and Florida cut drug treatment for inmates to save $7 million.
Minnesota is charging inmates room and board, and Iowa prisons now serve
desserts only once a day. Against huge budget shortfalls these measures are
fiscal dead-ends. More importantly, they will keep the same number of
persons behind bars at only a slightly lower cost to the taxpayer.

Smart Fixes. States that focus on large prison populations as the reason
for high prison costs are adopting smart fixes that not only cost less than
locking people up, but also address the legitimate safety concerns of
citizens and the need to help people take control of their lives.
Intelligent budget-cutting strategies come in three varieties.

Early release. Kentucky's governor gave 567 nonviolent inmates an early
release from prison to ease his budget woes. A similar step that cuts a
year off of each sentence in Oklahoma could save as much as $9 million.

Sentencing reform. Michigan's former Republican governor, John Engler,
signed into law a bill repealing the state's mandatory minimum sentencing
laws for drug crimes, a step that is already reducing the number of
first-time offenders going to jail.

Sentencing reforms in Washington state are expected to lower the inmate
count by 1,800 and, in North Carolina, new guidelines call for harsh prison
terms for violent crimes, but community level sentences for nonviolent,
first-time offenders. Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi and North Dakota
have also reduced sentences for nonviolent and first-time offenders by
easing their mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

In Oklahoma, every 1,000 offenders not incarcerated for a year would cut
the budget deficit by $16 million.

Treatment, not jail. Another group of states -- Texas, Oregon, California,
Idaho and Arkansas -- have expanded the use of drug treatment to greatly
lower prison costs. Since about 80 percent of prison inmates have serious
drug and alcohol problems, and states currently spend so little on
prevention and treatment, this strategy has great potential for reducing
budget deficits.

California, for example, expects its treatment programs to send 24,000
fewer persons to prison each year. In Arkansas judges now have the
discretion to sentence offenders convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual
offenses to treatment as opposed to a prison term.

Spending taxes up-front to prevent problems can significantly cut
unnecessary costs later on in state run corrections, health, education and
welfare programs. A California study found for every $1 invested in
treating inmate substance abuse, taxpayers eventually save about $7 in
future costs. A similar analysis in Oregon showed a 5-1 savings ratio.

Effective treatment programs cost about $3,500 per year. But tax savings
during the first year after a person successfully completes a treatment
program can be enormous: $5,000 in reduced crime costs; $7,300 in reduced
arrest and prosecution costs; and, for Oklahoma, $16,000 in reduced
incarceration costs.

Each citizen or inmate who completes a state-sponsored treatment program
and then avoids a future run-in with the law could save taxpayers at least
$28,000. For every 1,000 citizens and inmates successfully completing these
programs, future Oklahoma budget deficits could be reduced by $28 million.

The choice is clear. Leaders in Oklahoma City can continue to raise taxes
to incarcerate nonviolent offenders. Or they can use smart sentencing
policies, coupled with treatment and prevention programs, to cut both
prison costs and taxes.

Dr. Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a
Washington-based civil liberties organization. E-mail: fraserr@erols.com.