The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

It's no mystery, then, why prison populations are growing while recidivism rates remain obstinately high. The cycle continues this year, with the shuttering of day-reporting centers in Norfolk, Suffolk and nine other locations in Virginia. Worse, behavioral service staff is being reduced, and community programs are being cut in the juvenile justice system, forcing more youth into detention centers. Similar cuts are being implemented in other states faced with deficits.

At both the federal and state levels, the corrections system is as aimless and hopeless as the 2.3 million men and women living behind bars. The incarceration rate in the United States, now exceeding 1 in 100 adults, is the highest in the world, according to the Pew Center on the States. Governments have busied themselves in the past two decades constructing 1 million new prison cells and rolling out miles of razor wire, but amid the frenzy they have forgotten the point of incarceration.

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb recognizes the need to refocus and re-evaluate the goals of the criminal justice system. He plans to introduce legislation this spring establishing a national panel tasked with recommending reforms. His proposal deserves the support of his colleagues in Congress.

Webb has no desire to pare back the correctional system's primary function, to protect the public from serious, violent and chronic criminals. But he also understands the need to find more humane and cost-effective methods for dealing with less dangerous offenders.

Although he wants national experts to have a hand in drafting comprehensive reforms, Webb has revealed some of his own ideas. He supports drug courts, in which offenders participate in weekly meetings with judges, drug treatment, group therapy, mental health counseling and parenting classes as an alternative to incarceration. There are 15 drug courts in Virginia, but the state funds only a fraction. Webb also criticizes laws that make it difficult for felons to regain their citizenship rights once they complete their sentences.

More broadly, the panel should look at performance-based funding for state and local programs that can demonstrate success through low recidivism rates, successful job placements, effective drug treatment and victim-restitution collections.

The convoluted criminal justice system that now exists is the product of years of incremental and disconnected actions. Only a holistic approach will clean up the mess. It's not a project that promises high popularity ratings, but fortunately, Webb appears less concerned with polls than he is with fixing problems.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/time-rethink-goals-prison