The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Though this debate should have occurred well before the size and price of the jail were determined, it makes sense for the county officials who are negotiating for state permission to scale back the project to propose alternatives to incarceration. These have the potential to shrink the size and expense of the jail - with no risk to public safety.

The usual reasons for expanding a jail are overcrowding, population projections that show the number of inmates exceeding capacity, and deteriorating physical conditions. All of these exist to different degrees in Suffolk County.

It may well be that, simply based on physical conditions, some new capacity is warranted. The question is how much.

The answer requires a rigorous, non-ideological study of who is in jail, for how long and for what purpose. This is what the National Institute of Corrections likely will provide when it issues recommendations requested recently by County Executive Steve Levy and Sheriff Alfred Tisch.

Most inmates in Suffolk jails are awaiting trial. Even decreasing by one or two days the lengths of stays for thousands of detainees can result in the need for significantly less jail space. This is also a laudatory goal in terms of pure justice: People should spend as little time as possible awaiting sentencing.

Shortening jail stays will require a sustained effort among all the actors in the criminal justice system. Ending long adjournments between court appearances, open and early evidentiary discovery and firm trial dates all can speed the disposition of cases.

It's also a question of who exactly is going to jail. Are there low-level offenders with low bail who stay for only very short periods before either making bail or taking a plea? If so, what is the point of this policy? Simply sending someone to jail for a short period of time is no guarantee of public safety. Many jail systems have recidivism rates of 50 percent or more in the first year after people are released. There are other ways to achieve public safety than by simply building more and more jail cells. To see this clearly, all Suffolk has to do is look at its neighbor to the west, New York City. In fiscal 1991, the jail population in the city peaked at almost 21,500. By 2004, it was down 36 percent to 13,750. And from 1993-2003, the city led the nation in crime reduction with a 68 percent drop in crime and a 70 percent decrease in murders.

How do such alternatives to incarceration work? One example is New York City's Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services, with an annual budget of $12 million, which provides services and supervision for about 14,000 offenders a year. Some of those are youth who have been arrested for their first felony. They are given strict supervision in the community, substance-abuse prevention training, school placement and literacy classes, and transitional job services. Anyone who doesn't keep up with the requirements is returned to court and usually sent back to jail.

Studies of New York City's programs have found no increased risk to public safety with fewer offenders in jail, and less recidivism than occurs after people are jailed. It's no coincidence that crime in New York City continues to drop as the jail population drops.

It is difficult to know precisely the extent to which the city's many alternatives to incarceration have contributed to the decline in jail population. Other factors include the police focusing more on quality-of-life offenses, and efforts have also been made to reduce lengths of stay. There is little doubt, however, that these programs have played a key role.

As for the understandable fears about having more convicted criminals living in our neighborhoods, one thing is clear: These people are already there. Remember that as many as half of everyone who gets out of jail returns within a year or so, and national statistics show that more than half of those who leave state prisons return within three years.

The lesson for Suffolk is less about exactly how New York City lowered its jail population and reduced crime, but that it is possible to have fewer people in jail and increase public safety simultaneously. It is a lesson that should frame Suffolk's effort to make sure, in an environment of incredibly scarce resources, that it makes all reasonable efforts to build only what is absolutely necessary.

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