The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Without intervention, the state’s cost to operate the prison system will literally eat the lunch of every other state-funded program.

And it is all because elected officials are too timid to tell the public that there are other ways to protect people from crime besides throwing away the key every time someone is convicted of a felony.

The director of Justice Policy Initiatives at the conservative Independence Institute recently wrote a newspaper column about the topic. His numbers speak for themselves.

Meanwhile, county jails are also full all over the state.

Costs to keep people in jail are already stripping money from other important programs in a growing state. With primary and secondary educational funding constitutionally protected, highway funding, for example, becomes a primary target when it comes to balancing the state budget.

Solutions exist, but they will require willingness to break out of the mold that legislators perceive that voters want.

Voters really want safety AND efficient use of taxpayer money. Both are possible to achieve.

As the Independence Institute notes, giving judges more latitude in sentencing is one solution. For example, not all felony offenses are created equal. Some are non-violent, which open themselves to alternative sen-tencing arrangements.

Not all parole violations are equally as bad either. Someone late for a parole appointment is not the same as someone who skips the state. Penalties for those offenses should not be the same.

Drug crimes also present opportunities for a more creative approach to sentencing. Some states are having success with special prisons for criminals hooked on methamphetamine. Keeping them out of standard prisons keeps them away from career criminals and gives them a chance to clean up their habit and avoid future criminal offenses.

Studies also show, as the Institute notes, that spending money on drug treatment instead of incarceration results in large savings to the public and a better result. Also, tightly supervised parole is far less expensive than prison and more effective at keeping people from returning to crime.

Of course, not every alternative works with every law violator, and in those cases prison will still be there.

The key is thinking innovatively and with less emotion when passing laws intended to protect the public.

The public’s pocketbook also needs protecting.