Right turn on prisons

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums

Pragmatism instead of politics must win the day in the state Legislature if lawmakers are to deliver urgently needed prison reform. An overcrowded state Department of Corrections is headed for huge deficits and possibly large legal liabilities without immediate relief and comprehensive long-term reforms.

House Speaker David Wilkins, a Greenville Republican, has prefiled a bill that would make nonviolent offenders serving less than five years in prison eligible for home incarceration, electronic monitoring or daily supervision. The Legislature should pass this sensible bill that will better use expensive prison space for violent criminals. At the same time, it would put petty criminals in programs that require monitoring, treatment and restitution — a more affordable and appropriate setting.

This is the type of immediate sentencing reform for which Corrections director Jon Ozmint has been begging lawmakers. The inmate population has already outgrown capacity. And the state's prison building schedule has been dormant for three years due to a lack of funds.

This state cannot afford another year where the Legislature does nothing to alleviate overcrowding. South Carolina's prison population, under the weight of truth-in-sentencing legislation that has lengthened prison terms, is expected to grow by a staggering 32 percent by 2008. Without this bill, or one similarly aimed at reducing overcrowding, the state would have to spend $300 million in facilities alone to house the projected inmate growth. Operating costs would balloon by as much.

Wilkins' leadership is welcome on this issue. His sponsorship of this bill is significant both for the speaker's influence and for his historical preference for truth-in-sentencing laws. Wilkins deserves credit for taking this common-sense approach to the conundrum Corrections finds itself in, especially in a year in which most state lawmakers are up for re-election. But at this juncture, the Legislature must put politics aside and realize this state's electorate is savvy enough to understand that our existing system of crime and punishment is untenable given the stress an already overcrowded system is putting on a stubbornly stagnant state budget. Most taxpayers would surely agree that South Carolina has pressing educational and infrastructure needs that must be met in lieu of locking up more petty drug offenders and bad-check writers.

To make reforms complete, the Legislature must also thoroughly review our sentencing laws, especially those mandatory minimums that handcuff judges and result in sentences that are often inordinately long.

This issue may well define this legislative year. It's a session that should be considered a failure if lawmakers allow this state's prison system to continue toward an inevitable train wreck.