SMART SENTENCING COULD CUT PRISON COSTS, TAXES

GOV. Bob Taft's projected $2 billion budget deficit is due in part to the
cost of confining 43,500 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, including Ohio, are counting on alternatives
to incarceration to reduce prison costs.

The cost to keep each Ohio inmate behind bars is $60.22 a day, or nearly
$22,000 a year. Add in other operating and capital costs and you get a
prison bill of $1.8 billion a year.

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.

1. 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 Ohio could save as much as $12 million.

2. Sentencing Reform. Michigan's ex-governor, Republican 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.

Ohio's reforms are expected to reduce its prison population by about 4,000,
saving taxpayers as much as $88 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, non-sexual
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 dollar invested in
treating inmate substance abuse, taxpayers eventually save about $7 in
future costs. A similar analysis in Oregon showed a 5-to-1 savings ratio.

Effective treatment programs cost about $3,500 per year, per person. 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 Ohio, $22,000 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
$34,000.

For every 1,000 citizens and inmates successfully completing these
programs, future Ohio budget deficits could be reduced by $34 million.

Leaders in Columbus know first hand that smart sentencing policies can cut
both prison costs and taxes. And that is good news for Ohio taxpayers.

Ronald Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a
Washington-based civil liberties organization. He can be reached at
fraserr@erols.com