A Prison Nightmare
| By Tomplant - Jan 9th, 2006 at 5:17 pm EST |
One of the things that I hear frequently when I speak with groups about our budget is "why don't you just take the money out of prisons?" The reality is: if we're going to put people in prison, we have to pay for them to be there.
Our prison situation is a ticking timebomb. We've known this for some time. In fact, the Joint Budget Committee submitted a list of potential sentencing changes two years ago to the Governor suggesting ways to alleviate our projected prison bed shortfall. The Governor told us he would veto any and all measures to change our sentencing guidelines.
So, now we are looking at 1,000 new prisoners (net) every year. We are currently building a prison - CSPII - in Pueblo. It's a major undertaking. It's costing us over $100 Million to build it and even more to staff it. It only holds 954 prisoners. We would need to build one every year to keep up with our prison population.
This is just insane.
The Corrections Department presented their budget proposal to us today. In response to questions from the committee members, the DOC projected that they will need $182 Million in new operating expenses and $370 Million in new buildings in just the next five years to keep up with their prison population.
This is an area where political rhetoric runs headfirst into political reality. You will hear over and over again from political leaders that they don't want to appear "soft on crime" so they will oppose any sentencing reforms. You will also hear from these same people that we need to stop spending so much money in Government. The reality is: you can't have it both ways.
If you're going to do the time, we have to pay the dime. Political courage is in short supply to address this impending disaster in our corrections system.
The Budget committee is looking toward substantial investments in mental health programs and substance abuse programs as well as youth diversion and alternatives to incarceration, which will have some impact. But as long as we have inflexible mandatory sentencing guidelines, we are going to continue to see more and more people put into prisons.
That means more and more taxpayer dollars going to incarceration rather than education and health care. This is a dangerous dynamic that will impact our economy and our society for decades to come.
Our prison situation is a ticking timebomb. We've known this for some time. In fact, the Joint Budget Committee submitted a list of potential sentencing changes two years ago to the Governor suggesting ways to alleviate our projected prison bed shortfall. The Governor told us he would veto any and all measures to change our sentencing guidelines.
So, now we are looking at 1,000 new prisoners (net) every year. We are currently building a prison - CSPII - in Pueblo. It's a major undertaking. It's costing us over $100 Million to build it and even more to staff it. It only holds 954 prisoners. We would need to build one every year to keep up with our prison population.
This is just insane.
The Corrections Department presented their budget proposal to us today. In response to questions from the committee members, the DOC projected that they will need $182 Million in new operating expenses and $370 Million in new buildings in just the next five years to keep up with their prison population.
This is an area where political rhetoric runs headfirst into political reality. You will hear over and over again from political leaders that they don't want to appear "soft on crime" so they will oppose any sentencing reforms. You will also hear from these same people that we need to stop spending so much money in Government. The reality is: you can't have it both ways.
If you're going to do the time, we have to pay the dime. Political courage is in short supply to address this impending disaster in our corrections system.
The Budget committee is looking toward substantial investments in mental health programs and substance abuse programs as well as youth diversion and alternatives to incarceration, which will have some impact. But as long as we have inflexible mandatory sentencing guidelines, we are going to continue to see more and more people put into prisons.
That means more and more taxpayer dollars going to incarceration rather than education and health care. This is a dangerous dynamic that will impact our economy and our society for decades to come.
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