ALTERNATIVES TO BUILDING PRISONS

Lock 'Em Up And Throw Away The Key Isn't The Only Option For Rehabilitating Virginia Offenders.

When state leaders appropriately reformed the parole system in the mid-'90s, Virginians were assured that violent offenders would do their time.

As part of the reform, the state was willing to divert less-serious, nonviolent offenders from prisons into other rehabilitative programs.

Virginia should summon that response now as rumblings of a need for more low-to medium-security prison beds crop up.

The more sensible and cost-effective alternative would be to direct offenders guilty of less-serious crimes to drug courts, work release and community-based programs.

Such programs allow offenders to undergo rehabilitation through means other than locking them up at more than $20,000 a year.

The alternatives would put fewer prisoners in jail while at the same time giving them the rehabilitation they need to safeguard the public.

At a time when Virginia budget constraints have forced cutbacks in correctional staff at existing units, the state should pursue alternatives to the more costly building of new facilities.

Crowding at Botetourt Correctional Unit and other low-to medium-security institutions has prompted the Virginia Department of Corrections to suggest building one and possibly two new prisons in Western Virginia.

State officials say a projected increase in the state's current 31,000 prison population to 45,000 by the end of the decade will require more incarceration space.

But before yielding to correction officials' recommendations, Virginians should demand that state leaders strongly consider other ways to rehabilitate criminals.

Some 25 percent of Virginia prisoners are behind bars for nonviolent drug offenses such as low-level dealing and possession.  Studies suggest many nonviolent convicts would respond to alternatives other than incarceration.

Rather than build more prisons to warehouse inmates, Virginia should put more effort into developing alternatives that will keep nonviolent offenders out of jail.