Locking ’em up and ditching the key never was a cheap approach to punishing criminals. Nor was it particularly effective, or efficient, it seems.
That must change, as a new report makes clear that our criminal corrections model is broken, unaffordable and unsustainable.
That’s proved by the cost of maintaining this dysfunctional system. It has more than doubled since 1990, standing now at more than a $1 billion annual burden to this cash-tight state.
The good news is that remaking our corrections system should save money in the long run. As a bonus, it might help the crime rate fall even further.
Doing a better job of handling criminals is a necessity for reasons other than monetary ones. In the past two decades, Georgia’s prison head count more than doubled, driving us into the unwanted distinction of having one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation. Meanwhile, our criminal recidivism — backsliding, if you will — has remained unchanged for a decade as prison stints did little to prevent inmates from showing up at the gates time and again.
These are the summary themes contained in the Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians, an initiative that grew out of legislation signed by Gov. Nathan Deal this year.
The council’s 25-page report lays out a common-sense framework for corrections reform. It’s one that, for starters, would keep imprisoned for as long as warranted those who most endanger society. Doing otherwise is a non-starter.
So citizens shouldn’t give credence to “soft on crime” scare tactics that might be heard as election season grinds into higher gear in coming months. Those who would preach this argument are, in effect, embracing fiscal irresponsibility and old thinking, in our view.
We need modern thinking such as that found in the council’s recommendations about revamping how Georgia handles less-dangerous offenders. Based on recidivism statistics and cost, routinely locking up many nonviolent offenders has proved to be a poor use of taxpayer dollars.
The council’s reform concept is pretty simple. It calls for strengthening and increasing use of community-based options such as probation and parole programs and drug-abuse treatment to manage lower-risk criminals, many of whom are first-time offenders.
That makes sense considering that, in Georgia, nearly six in 10 people remanded to prison are sent up for drug or property crimes. More than 3,200 convicts are locked away each year for drug possession. That’s distinct from the arguably more-serious offenses of illegal drug sales or trafficking.
It’s easy to believe that slamming shut prison doors on even nonviolent offenders will make us safer. That’s not the case. The council’s report says, “Research indicates that incarceration can lead to increased recidivism for certain offenders.”
Putting these people instead into proven programs that keep them out of prison and aim to divert them onto the honest path should save millions of taxpayer dollars, based on the experience of other states.
That’s held true even in places with a national reputation for being tough on crime. Take Texas, which found itself in 2007 facing a projected shortage of 17,000 prison beds by 2012.
Rather than making a downpayment of $523 million toward more prison beds, they enacted comprehensive corrections reforms. Most importantly, Texas boldly put $241 million toward residential, diversion and treatment centers.
The bottom line of their action was to avoid spending an estimated $2 billion to expand prison capacity. However you parse the numbers, Texas taxpayers came out ahead because of state officials’ foresight and courage.
Their example shows the necessity of smartly spending some money in the short-run to avoid making a much-larger payout over the longer-term.
To that end, the Georgia council’s report is careful to stress more than once the necessity for “reinvesting” a portion of money saved from prison reform. Moving to less-costly methods should not be seen as giving the General Assembly a windfall that lawmakers can wipe permanently from the state’s budget and then trumpet the cuts to tax-leery voters.
For corrections reform to work, a good portion of any savings must go toward paying for the programs and staff necessary to enact real improvements. Those elements are in short supply in much of the state. They must be put into place if remaking our corrections system is to work.
Making this happen will require real leadership and fortitude by our lawmakers, who should act next year on the reform blueprint. Doing so will help keep Georgia safe and save the state money over time.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board
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