Posted on Mon, Jun. 25, 2007
Herald Leader Editorial page

Harsh sentencing crowds jails, doesn't make us safer

By Paschal Baute

Kentucky, with its harsh sentencing code, puts in jail and prison more than three times the average number of incarcerations in the seven surrounding states. Since 1975, the number of incarcerations in Kentucky increased by 6 1/2 times while the population increased by a mere 25 percent

State expenditures for prisons exploded from $7 million 30 years ago to more than $300 million today, an increase of more than 4,000 percent.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher has said our county budgets are "hemorrhaging" due to an increasing jail population. But his Blue Ribbon Commission on Sentencing died with the hiring scandal indictments.

According to the state auditor, 72 percent of our full-service county jails are overcrowded. Those jails also warehouse state and federal prisoners because the added revenue helps support county budgets.

This escalation of tax expense and jail warehousing space does not reduce crime; it is not designed to. In fact, the growth is out of control. Eighty percent of all offenders are drug- and alcohol-related, but practically no rehabilitation programs are available.

We have created a revolving cell door, with two prisoners out of three returning within three years -- returning once more to mere warehousing.

African-Americans make up 15 percent of drug users, but account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

Or consider this: America has 260,000 people in state prisons on non-violent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70 percent) are black or Latino, according to a 2006 American Civil Liberties Union report.

Black men are seven times more likely to be incarcerated, with average jail sentences about 10 months longer than those of white men. Twelve percent of black men in their 20s are in our correctional system; that is about one-eighth of this age group, according to the latest figures from the National Urban League.

Since mandatory minimum sentencing first began for drug offenders, the Federal Bureau of Prisons' budget has increased by more than 2,100 percent: from $220 million in 1986 to about $4.4 billion in 2004. Because of mandatory minimum sentences, the number of drug offenders in federal prison grew from 25 percent of the total inmate population in 1981 to 60 percent in 2001. It is even larger now.

What is the outcome of Kentucky's tough-on-crime policies? So much warehousing is required that little money for rehabilitation is available. Therefore, serving time means an education in drug connections and dealing -- learning new ways to beat the system.

In the meantime, families are more broken, addictions are deeper and job skills more obsolete or lost entirely.

Our criminal justice system is not working. Our policies are criminalizing social problems of addiction and non-support. Our jails do not have room for the number of people being sent to them. Their staffs are often so overwhelmed that there is no room for needed programs even when offered.

We have created and are supporting stealth schools for drug dealing and addiction.

What is a remedy?

First of all, citizens need to wake up to what we are getting for our taxes. We are not getting the added safety and security that tough-on-crime advocates tout.

We propose creating a permanent independent oversight commission on sentencing, corrections and rehabilitation. Key players, such as Supreme Court judges, the attorney general, corrections director or their representatives would be included. But the commission must include a non-partisan citizens review panel for sustaining public advocacy and interest. We ask that the commission be chaired by distinguished legal scholars.

We challenge each candidate for governor and attorney general to announce his own proposals to address these critical issues. Many other changes are possible.

Paschal Baute of Lexington is a pastoral psychologist and chairman of Kentuckians Expecting Effective Justice.

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