BILL TO STIFFEN SENTENCES COULD INCREASE COSTS

Prison Agency Says Taxpayers Would Suffer; Supporters Of Legislation Disagree

If South Carolina toughens its prison sentences according to a House
of Representatives bill, it could cost taxpayers an additional $75
million a year to house inmates by the end of the decade, state
projections show.

Building prisons for them would cost an additional $70 million in 2005
alone, according to state Corrections Department figures.

If Speaker David Wilkins' proposal to make new inmates serve at least
85 percent of their sentences becomes law, the yearly price tag could
range from $2.3 million in 2004 to $75.3 million in 2010, the
department estimates.

Wilkins, a Greenville Republican, scoffs at the figures as inflated.
He said South Carolinians want tougher sentences to feel safe, and
they'll pay for it.

But a USC prisons expert considers the legislation a bad idea at the
wrong time.

"It's still a phenomenal amount of money," said Joann Morton of the
College of Criminal Justice. "Heck, we can't pay the bills we have
now."

The Corrections Department's budget was cut this year to $280 million
from last year's $330 million because of state budget shortfalls.

"Very little thought or research" has gone into the legislation that's
close to passing, said Morton, who was a prison administrator for 12
years.

Overall, the proposal could cost $340 million more to operate the
corrections system by 2010, plus $248 million for building prisons,
according to Corrections.

The Senate approved its version of the "truth-in-sentencing" bill last
week. A committee from both the Senate and the House is to iron out
the differences.

Wilkins predicts a bill will become law this year because this is the
first time his proposal made it out of a Senate committee.

Corrections officials estimate the 85 percent standard would have kept
6,500 inmates in prison 101/2 months longer if it had become law by June
30, 2000.

Most nonviolent offenders currently serve 33 months, or 53 percent, of
their sentences, according to the agency's analysis.

The state would need more prison beds because the number of inmates
would balloon by nearly 5,000 at the end of the decade, the projection
shows.

Wilkins and his supporters say the Corrections Department's numbers
are wrong for the costs as well as the growth in the inmate
population. Still, Wilkins, who's been fighting the issue for eight
years, has no numbers to dispute the estimates from the Corrections
Department.

"I don't think it's going to skyrocket," Laura Hudson, head of the
state Victim Assistance Network, said of the agency's estimate. "Every
time we go in to do anything" to toughen prison sentences, critics say
"it's going to bust the budget."

Citing Wilkins' 1995 law that requires most violent criminals to serve
85 percent of their sentences, Hudson said, "It didn't the first time.
We have not bankrupted the state."

Public safety can't be measured in dollars, she said. Victims and
victims' families just want to know exactly when offenders are going
to get out of jail, Hudson said.

Prisons director Gary Maynard stands by the projections. He wouldn't
say whether he opposes the bill. But he said he would ask for any
necessary funding.

Gov. Jim Hodges supports precise sentences but won't decide whether to
support the bill until he sees a final version, spokeswoman Cortney
Owings said.

Wilkins said he believes South Carolinians will pay to have a justice
system they can understand.

"I believe the criminal justice system in South Carolina is
fraudulent," the speaker said. "The sentence does not mean what it
says. I think South Carolinians want to be safe. We're a law-and-order
state."

Wilkins and Hudson dispute that the legislation would raise the prison
population substantially. Judges would reduce their sentences because
they would know about the new law, Wilkins said.

"It will take the guesswork out of it," he said. "The sentences won't
get longer." But defendants and victims will know exactly how long
offenders will serve in prison, the speaker said.

Morton, of USC, said it's an assumption that judges would change their
sentencing patterns.

Furthermore, she said, other states that passed truth-in-sentencing
laws soon found that legislators started toughening penalties, which
kept inmates in prison even longer.

Lawmakers react to a particularly gruesome crime or are pressured by
changes in federal law enforcement policy, Morton said. Washington's
War on Drugs, for example, helped fill many state prisons, she said.

South Carolina already has a high incarceration rate, she
said.

A study last year found the state puts 532 people in prison for every
100,000 residents. That ranked South Carolina sixth among 16 states in
the Southeast.

But the study by Southern Legislative Conference found the rise in
prison population slowing. In 1997-98, it grew 4.2 percent. In
2000-01, it rose 1.2 percent.

Also, the state spent an average of $15,945 per year to house each
inmate, the study shows. That's $300 per year less than the regional
average of $16,245 but well below Georgia's $18,184 and North
Carolina's $23,232.

In a cash-strapped state, money is better spent on education, said
Inez Tenenbaum, who supervises primary and secondary schools.

Tenenbaum, a Democrat, said her work with juvenile offenders showed
her prisons are the right places for some lawbreakers.

But Tenenbaum said she also learned that poor schooling is a common
denominator in many young offenders.

She would not take a position on Wilkins' legislation, but said,
"Money spent on education directly impacts where children go to the
juvenile-justice and later the adult-corrections system.

"Over the long haul," she said, "spending money on schools makes more
sense than spending money on prison cells."