Will We Finally Get Some Prison Reform?
A huge difference between former Gov. Bill Owens and current Gov. Bill Ritter is that the former refused to consider sentencing reform while the latter is open to it. Colorado's prisons have been bulging at the seams for years. The cost is enormous:
The state expects to add more than 6,000 prisoners by 2011, requiring $800 million in prison construction. That figure is more than twice the amount Colorado expects to have for all capital construction other than roads during that period of time. A number of officials have concluded the state cannot afford it.
The tough on crime stance of the 80's and 90's just doesn't work any more. We need to find a way to lower the incidence of new crimes (through prevention) and reduce the risk of recidivism (through rehabilitation programs.) We also need to stop incarcerating non-violent drug offenders and finding a way to get them into treatment and off of drugs.
According to Christie Donner, director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, the reasons for the rise in inmate population include:
- Many prisoners serving longer sentences.
- Prisoners not being released early on parole.
- Prisoners returning to prison on parole violations and on new charges .
Gov. Ritter is considering proposals to establish a sentencing reform commission to study the issue. He should be encouraged, prodded and propelled into doing it. Here's a good item for consideration for the Commimssion:
Mike Krause, of the Independence Institute, repeated his group's call for two changes to reduce Colorado's prison costs: Halve the sentences for drug possession and reduce the lowest class of drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. When it was brought up in the debate over Referendum C in 2005, "You would have thought the sky had fallen" from the reaction, he said.
Let's use our jails for the most dangerous among us and use the money saved to train the inmates coming out to lead productive, law-abiding lives and to provide drug treatment to those who need it. Let's also encourage employers to hire ex-offenders so they can support themselves once they get out without resorting to a life of economic crime. I wish there was a way to prevent landlords from accessing criminal records for non-violent crimes. Ex-offenders also need a place to live and housing discrimination against them is counterproductive and another reason our recidivism rate is high.
Comments
Submitted by blindjustice (not verified) on Thu, 2008-07-17 16:27.
Why not do mental health evaluations while they're in jail facing return to prison or new charges? Many of these guys have mental issues! How many of them grew up abused and unwanted? Anger, pressure, not being able to cope in the real world after living life in a cocoon and being told what to do 24 hours a day. It doesn't surprise me that the prison system here in Colorado is a revolving door for offenders with non-violent histories. It would be a lot cheaper to use community corrections for cognitive behavioral therapy and substance abuse then to keep locking them up in prisons where those programs are non-existent due to budget cuts. There has got to be an answer somewhere...and it literally starts with the DA's who insist on overcharging people just so they can have a WIN on their game scoreboard...this is not a GAME! And using coercion and threats to get someone to plea to something they did not do makes you just as much a criminal!
Submitted by Anne (not verified) on Fri, 2007-02-09 14:42.
I have personal knowledge and insite to how inmates are treated especially in a CCA facilities. No wonder the inmates end up back in prison. They are treated like animals and degraded and mentally and sometimes physically tortured.
Why not do more to make them feel better about themselves and rehabilitate them. There are so many 1st time and short sentence inmates that just need some positive reinforcement and encourage them.
Submitted by JSN (not verified) on Sat, 2007-02-03 08:42.
A former California judge has noted that the courts are overloaded with nonviolent repeat offenders the progress from probation to jail to prison. I thought if that is also in Iowa we should see a lot prison returnees serving short sentences (a person serving a short sentence can cycle through the CJ System at more than twice the rate of other inmates) for nonperson crimes.
I looked at the data and found that that about 15% of the prison population was returnees charged with a nonperson crime who were serving short sentences. About half of the nonperson offenders were charged with either a drug offense or repeated OWI (DUI maybe in Colorado?). A reasonable supposition is that is also true in Colorado.
If so we have a legislators dilemma because we have a set of inmates where prison alternatives have already failed and the Board of Parole are not likely to grant early parole and if you can't figure out how to keep them from coming back you have to use money you don't have to build new prisons.
Submitted by Al (not verified) on Thu, 2007-02-01 14:54.
The prison system is not set up to reform anyone, its a business,thats why private business is handling the prison system now.They try to keep them full to the top so that means max dollar coming in,and not many people can survive on parole,so they get throwed back in.I believe we need to put prisoners to work on lumber clearing the forest that is ruined by beetles and make it a profit for the state by selling the lumber products, manpower can reach all these hard to get places that the beetles are having a hay-day on and machine cannot reach without tearing up our forest.You can't reform druggies so you might as well put them to work and let them reform themselves, cause drug reform would cost more than paying private prisons......thats my opinion
