Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 8, 1994 TAG: 9408090042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Washington Post
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS NOTE: LEDE LENGTH: Medium
The enormous cost of warehousing aged inmates in expensive institutions for the rest of their lives when they are convicted of three serious felonies is beginning to trouble lawmakers, whose budgets already are being stretched by the new prisons being built to satisfy the public clamor to get tough on crime.
Delegates to the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in New Orleans last month said in interviews and during workshops on the subject that they are conflicted over their constituents' demands that repeat felons be removed permanently from society and the costs of implementing new habitual-offender laws.
``In our minds, we know it's not going to work out in the long run because of the costs. In our hearts, we want to listen to the people when they say they want the confidence that the system will finish with those who repeatedly commit crimes,'' said Rep. Donna Sytek, R-N.H., who is chairman of her legislature's committee on corrections and criminal justice.
``As a general rule, what we hear is, `Lock them up and throw the key away.' It's a tug between your heart and your head,'' she said.
Some lawmakers said judges already hand down harsh sentences to most repeat violent offenders, and that ``three strikes'' laws often lead to life sentences for criminals who were not intended to be covered.
``What alarms the public most is that dangerous people are being released. We should focus more on what type of offender needs to be incarcerated. We need to reallocate the cells so that people who truly pose a threat to the public safety are the ones who stay in prison,'' said Rhode Island Rep. Jeffrey J. Teitz, chairman of his legislature's judiciary committee.
Popularized by a referendum adopted in Washington state in November - and President Clinton's endorsement during his State of the Union address - the concept seized the public imagination like no other crime-control measure, even though many states already had mandatory minimum sentences for repeat violent-crime offenders, and nearly all had some type of repeat-offender law.
California's new law, according to the state Department of Corrections, will increase the prison population there by 275,000 inmates by 2028 at an annual incarceration cost of $5.7 billion. In addition, the state expects to incur prison construction costs of $21 billion.
``It's redundant,'' said Gregory Schmidt, staff director of the California Senate Judiciary Committee. ``We will now be in place to run the world's largest retirement home for chronic misfits. ... We may soon be moving to a no-parole public policy, which is absolute fantasy.''
In Alabama, a repeat-offender law swelled the prison population so much that the legislature was forced to give judges the power to suspend part of the relatively recent law's ``enhanced'' sentences for repeat offenders.
Several lawmakers pointed out that incarceration costs can range from $20,000 a year per inmate to more than $60,000, as elderly inmates serving life terms require costly medical care.
by CNB