| Prison relief bill quashed AIKEN - A proposal by South Carolina's prison chief to relieve overcrowding through alternatives to incarceration has been killed because of opposition from prosecutors around the state, a key legislative leader said Wednesday. As a result of resistance from the South Carolina Solicitors' Association, a bill that would have allowed some nonviolent offenders to serve about 90 days in prison before moving on to supervised house arrest is effectively dead, said state Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, the chairman of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee. "They represent a formidable foe if they're on the opposite side," Mr. Fair said. "Particularly in this specific area. That's why they're elected - to put people in prison." State Department of Corrections Director Jon Ozmint, with the backing of Gov. Mark Sanford and House Speaker David Wilkins, had proposed using house arrests, substance abuse treatment and electronic monitoring for certain nonviolent offenders as opposed to time behind bars. The proposal would have required legislation that would have given prison officials the freedom to use a combination of jail time and alternatives to fulfill an inmate's sentence. The state's prison system, which now has more than 24,000 inmates, is growing by 1,100 prisoners a year. Mr. Ozmint warns that sentencing guidelines are packing more inmates into prisons while his agency is undergoing budget cuts, a trend that has created one of the worst guard-to-prisoner ratios in the nation. A disappointed Mr. Ozmint said: "The Legislature likes our current criminal justice policies. They do not want to consider alternatives for incarceration for anybody. My problem has been our willingness to pay for those policies just has not been there. Eventually, you come to a point where you have to pay the bill." Aiken County Solicitor Barbara Morgan said the state's solicitors don't oppose alternative programs, but are worried that the bill would water down the state's truth-in-sentencing policies. She said the bill was also unclear as to how some alternative measures would be implemented. "We were concerned the bill might be going back to the 'let em out through the back door' policies," Ms. Morgan said, noting that violent offenders could get additional "good time" under a provision of the bill. "It's not fair to victims or law enforcement." Mr. Fair said Mr. Wilkens, in light of the opposition, told him he will not pursue the bill. "We're just going to defer," Mr. Fair said. "It'd be an ugly fight, and one we'd probably end up losing." Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or stephen.gurr@augustachronicle.com.
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