Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311250358
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A32 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Take crime. There is something sensible and soul-satisfying about the idea of locking up all the bad guys and throwing away the key. So soul-satisfying that Gov.-elect George Allen's promise to abolish parole became a major theme in his campaign.
The voters heartily approved.
There is beauty in simplicity, after all, especially simplicity in political speech. No embellishment. No fuzzy, gray areas. Just simple, clear- eyed common sense. How we yearn for it. How rare it is.
More common in politics is simplistic speech, and the folly therein.
While all law-abiding Virginians might hope Allen's vision is simple common sense - isn't there something that can be easily done about crime if we are just willing to throw enough money at it? - thoughtful Virginians must wonder if there isn't more folly than beauty in his proposed solution.
Is it an unrealistic oversimplification to suggest that, if we just had enough prison space, we'd be able to put the cuffs on street violence and lock it away, leaving our streets safe for peaceful citizens? Experience indicates that it is.
In Florida and in the federal prison system, where parole has been abolished, the prison populations have exploded - and violent crime has continued to increase.
Officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisons told Virginia lawmakers studying sentencing and parole reform that the number of federal prisoners skyrocketed from 43,000 in 1987, when parole was abolished and prison terms lengthened for violent crimes, to 89,000 in 1993. It is expected to grow to 119,000 by the turn of the century. Florida expects to be supporting 60,000 inmates by this time next year.
That would be fine - few tears will be shed for the incarcerated murderer or rapist - if that would mean fewer murders and fewer rapes. Crime must, indeed, be punished. And taxpayers likely would to be willing to pay the exorbitant costs of keeping criminals fed, clothed and penned up indefinitely if it meant the rest of us would be safe from crime.
But the experience of federal and Florida officials has been that such policies do not deter crime, while they do cost a devil of a lot of money: $2.1 billion a year in the federal system, $1.3 billion in Florida - and rising.
Similar "reform" in Virginia will almost certainly run smack into another of Allen's simple, plain-spoken campaign promises: no general tax increase.
But, then, the governor-elect never suggested abolishing parole and paying the price for that during his four-year term. This is a reform that is to be phased in over 12 years. And first, of course, it must be studied.
In the course of such study, let's hope attention will be given to Florida Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr.'s experienced view: "You must look at crime prevention, and I'm not talking about putting bars up on the windows of houses, but getting at the root causes of crime ... dysfunctional families, drug abuse and poverty problems."
by CNB