The Birmingham News
November 18, 2005

 
Gov. Bob Riley is right: Alabama prisons are in such a state that doing nothing isn't a real option.

That's why Riley wants the Legislature to focus on prison and sentencing reforms as soon as it goes into session in January. The Legislature should follow the governor's lead.

Lawmakers need to pass a package of reforms proposed by the Alabama Sentencing Commission. Among other things, the commission recommends the state establish voluntary sentencing standards for judges that ought to result in more reasonable and consistent sentences. The sentencing reforms died in the Legislature last year.

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In addition, lawmakers need to consider the findings of Riley's task force on prison crowding. In addition to seconding the Sentencing Commission's work, the task force is calling on the state to make more use of transition centers, community corrections, drug treatment and prison industries.

The reforms aren't without costs, but they aren't nearly as expensive as the alternatives: building more prisons to contain the rising tide of inmates or continuing to run a dangerously overcrowded, understaffed system.

State prisons are currently housing about twice the number of inmates they were designed to hold. Even though Riley's administration stepped up the release of nonviolent offenders, the relief proved temporary and inadequate. As usual, the exodus of inmates wasn't enough to offset the influx of new inmates.

Lawmakers helped create this crunch by enacting get-tough-on-crime measures that mandated long prison terms for repeat offenders, even those who are not violent and pose little threat to society or who have drug addictions. Now, it's time for the Legislature to address the problem.

Fixing this problem isn't a matter of going soft on crime. It's a matter of getting smart on punishment.

"We understand that we've got a fundamental problem in corrections. That's the bad news," Riley said. "The good news is we also know there are common-sense solutions to fix most of those problems."

Legislators should waste no time in approving those common-sense solutions.

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