January 30, 1996

There's gotta be a better way

The upcoming special legislative session on prisons should focus on long-term solutions to ensure that real criminals do time-or we will soon find ourselves taxed to death, and not any safer. Building more prisons and transferring inmates to local jails are, at best, short-term solutions.

I suggest our elected officials start by making a sharper distinction between violent and nonviolent crimes, and adjust the punishments accordingly. Perpetrators of violent crimes should go to prison; first-time nonviolent criminals should not. Rather, nonviolent criminals should pay restitution to their victims and/or perform community service, the amount in both cases determined by the severity of the act.

Restitution and community service offer several advantages over the current, and dominant, punishment policy. A primary advantage, victims would be compensated for their troubles, not left empty-handed as is generally the case. Next, this alternative offers the opportunity to hold the line, or lower, taxes. Law-abiding Oregonians would not have to give up ever more of their hard-earned paychecks to fund new prisons and their upkeep. It conservatively costs $50,000 to construct a new two-person cell, and $15-20,000 annually to keep an individual in that cell.

Further, nonviolent criminals would have a better chance of "going straight" by remaining among more positive role models in the community than if surrounded by murderers, rapists and other violent inmates. Finally, mandatory community service would provide workers for projects that help the poor, elderly and others in need. As Donald Murray, former president of the National Association of Counties, said, "Many people in jail don't belong there--it's a poor use of scarce resources."

A second topic that deserves discussion is home detention sentences for nonviolent criminals. Home detention has been used experimentally-and successfully-in Oregon and elsewhere. The criminal, fitted with a metal bracelet, may leave home only to work or perform community service. When his home is called-randomly by computer-the detainee puts the bracelet into a device connected to his phone to prove he is there. Violations invoke stiffer penalties, including jail time.

My third suggestion for legislators: refine the word "crime" to help alleviate our prison problems. Some "crimes" are engaged in voluntarily, honestly and peacefully by adult parties and don't harm the property of a non-participant, though they may offend another's sense of morality. These are "consensual crimes" and they include private gambling, prostitution and non-violent drug use. The decriminalization of consensual crimes would help alleviate the pressures building throughout the Oregon correctional system.

In Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society, Peter McWilliams reports that more than 350,000 Americans are currently locked up for consensual crimes. An additional 1.5 million are on parole or probation. The question begs to be answered: How many of these nonviolent "criminals" clog the Oregon court and corrections systems today?

According to McWilliams, we spend more than $50 billion each year punishing people for doing things that do not physically harm the person or property of another. Additionally, we lose an estimated $150 billion in tax revenue a year due to all the arresting, sentencing and punishing. It could be argued that this money would be better spent on arresting and prosecuting truly dangerous people. Decriminalizing consensual crimes would also help reduce the graft and corruption that has accompanied the criminalization of the above activities.

Legislators should also discuss the greater use of the private sector to reduce the imprisonment costs of those who represent a true threat to our well-being. Several companies-Correctional Services Group, Behavioral Systems Southwest and Corrections Corporation of America-already operate halfway houses and correctional facilities in the U.S. This option was explored in a winning report for the 1994 Oregon Better Government Competition, organized by the Cascade Policy Institute. Greater private sector involvement in managing Oregon state correction facilities, the author notes, could reduce operating costs alone by $18 million annually.

Serious, fundamental changes in the legal, judicial and correctional systems must be made if we want to keep truly dangerous, violent criminals off the streets without further burdening our already-stretched paychecks. We need to make greater distinctions among crimes; redefine what a "crime" is; make greater use of restitution, community service and house detention as punishment; as well as permit the private sector do things normally considered the domain of the state.