Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 25, 1993 TAG: 9308260260
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Actually, twice in two days, which may be a record.
Earlier this month, in his farewell ``state of the prisons'' speech, the outgoing chairman of the State Board of Corrections, Peter G. Decker Jr., said this:
``We will never build our way out'' of prison-overcrowding or the social ills that manifest themselves in rising crime. The ``lock-'em-up and throw away the key'' approach so favored by politicians, warned Decker, will bankrupt the state by the year 2000.
The day before, Virginia's secretary of public safety, Randy Rollins, said much the same thing. He harshly criticized politicians - Democrats and Republicans alike - for talking ``tough on crime'' and pledging to ``lock 'em up'' while failing to tell the electorate how much it all will cost and where they'll get the money to keep building more prisons ad infinitum.
Decker, who has served for 11 years on the state corrections board, has long argued that the state needs to put more resources into treatment programs, especially for drug abusers and sex offenders, if it is ever to curb the rising rate of repeat crimes by ex-offenders.
In the long run, Decker says, educational and treatment efforts would not only better protect law-abiding citizens who are the victims of repeat offenders. They also would save the state millions of dollars in new-prison construction costs - now running about $26 milion to $52 million per prison, depending on the type of facility.
Rollins supports penalty alternatives short of imprisonment for nonviolent criminals, including electronic surveillance and home surveillance.
Both approaches make sense. But then Decker and Rollins aren't running for office.
Suggests Decker: ``It's not possible for politicians to support therapeutic treatment for prisoners. It doesn't get them elected.'' And ``it's sick that that should be a criterion'' for how they vote and what they do in office.
While Rollins doesn't let Democrats off the hook, he took special aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate George Allen's proposals to impose more mandatory minimum sentences and to reduce or possibly eliminate parole. ``Nowhere does he address the cost of such a policy, which would be enormous.''
If politicians' promised ``solution'' to crime is simply to build more prisons, says Rollins, it's time for them to level with the public about the escalating costs of doing that, and to identify where the money will come from.
Exactly right.
Roanoke's own Del. Chip Woodrum got a bill passed at the '93 General Assembly that will require, beginning in '94, a 10-year cost estimate for any legislation introduced to increase prison sentences.
It would be nice if political candidates followed suit. It'd be nice if they held back from issuing bold proposals without fiscal impact statements, including cost-benefit analysis and the specific sources of financing for their schemes.
Good luck. Much more likely, voters will be treated this year, as in the past, to more of the usual tough-on-crime blather. Virginians should ask themselves if they feel any safer for all the campaign rhetoric and prison construction of the past decade.
They should remind themselves: Only the talk is cheap.
by CNB