TURN 'EM LOOSE?

COLUMBIA -- Word that the state's latest cost-cutting plan included possibly dumping 3,000 prison inmates on the streets sent shivers through South Carolina last week, but experts say millions could be saved with little danger to the public.

States across the nation are grappling with the same problem as prison costs chew up a sizable chunk of their budgets in the midst of a crippling recession. Law enforcement officials argue that the potential threat to public safety justifies the expense. But others aren't so sure.

"We can't afford the high cost of incarceration. Period," said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, an Orangeburg Democrat and a longtime member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "The reality is that we, for years, have locked everybody up without any thought to the cost."

The proposal comes at a time when lawmakers are scrambling to save money. Falling revenues and a series of tax cuts passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature have bled more than $2 billion from the state budget. Spending is now about $5.2 billion.

Nearly $400 million of that goes to the Department of Corrections, making the prison system the fourth-largest cash-draw in the state budget. The prison system was built for 18,000 inmates but now accommodates 24,000.

Each of those criminals costs the state $14,545 a year to keep behind bars.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, a Florence Republican and lead budget writer, floated the possibility of early release on Tuesday, right before the Budget and Control Board agreed to allow the Corrections Department to run a

$30 million deficit this year.

Leatherman said the state can't continue to hand the prisons a blank check. The agency ran a $45.5 million deficit last year and a $3.9 million deficit the year before that.

Cutting around $30 million from the Corrections budget would mean closing up to four prisons, firing 700 employees and releasing as many as 3,400 inmates. That would leave the prison system with enough money to handle up to 21,000 inmates annually.

Leatherman's staff plans to meet this week with officials from Gov. Mark Sanford's office and the Corrections Department to discuss the matter.

Leatherman said a little-known 1982 law gives the Corrections Department the authority to release prisoners early. The law created a supervised furlough program for non-violent offenders who are within six months of completing their sentences.

Corrections Department Director Jon Ozmint said his lawyers don't think the law supports a broad early-release initiative.

The state has a supervised furlough program on the books, but it applies only to a very limited number of inmates and specifically controlled circumstances, according to Josh Gelinas, communications director for the Corrections Department.

Gelinas said a supervised furlough program will require a financial commitment from the cash-strapped state.

The state released prisoners in a furlough program in the mid-1990s to eligible offenders sentenced between 1983 and 1993, but Gelinas said supervised furloughs are very different than prison releases because of the level of control over the furloughs.

Federal courts forced early releases in South Carolina in the 1980s, but not since then.

A bill now poised for action on the Senate floor would allow the early release of prisoners if the governor declares a financial emergency. Sex offenders wouldn't be eligible, but some violent offenders might be.

A national trend

Several states from Connecticut to California have adopted or are mulling some form of early release to ease budget woes in rocky financial times. Spending on corrections has surged across the nation over the past two decades as lawmakers passed get-tough measures to place more offenders behind bars.

The number of people incarcerated in the United States reached 2.3 million in 2008, with one in every 100 adults locked up in prisons or jails, according to a report released last year by the Pew Center on the States.

At the same time, state corrections' costs topped $50 billion annually, consuming one in every 15 discretionary dollars, the study found.

Now, many cash-strapped states are looking to roll back those costs. Michigan, for example, is considering reinstating good-behavior credits for inmates, a move that would allow the early release of some 5,600 prisoners and save the state $130 million.

Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oregon and Illinois are among other states that have adopted or are considering some form of early-release for prisoners.

These moves have drawn controversy and alarm, and critics have seized on instances where newly freed offenders have committed new crimes. California's early-release program drew fire just this month after a freed inmate was accused of trying to rape a woman within a day of leaving jail.

Prison consultant James Austin, a former of director of the Institute on Crime, Justice and Corrections at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said such incidents may spark fear, but studies have shown that the early release of inmates does not drive up crime rates or recidivism. The main impact is on budgets, he said.

"Does it make people less safe? No," he said. "It's much to do about nothing."

In 2008, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency reviewed about a dozen studies of accelerated-release programs and found no significant difference in recidivism rates between inmates who left prison early and those who served their full sentences.

In some cases, the early-release inmates actually did better at avoiding a backslide into crime, the review stated.

Early-release programs don't change the overall flow of criminals going in and out of the justice system, Austin said. In general, they simply shave a few months from the sentences of inmates who are going to be getting out anyway, he said.

"It's like someone going to college. Should they go for four years or four years and three months?" he said. "If they do the extra three months, are they going to be that much better educated?"

However, North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt questioned how successful these inmates will be when they are dumped into a sour economy and forced to compete in a tight job market with double-digit unemployment.

Zumalt said adding thousands of criminals to the streets with no plan to help them find jobs and assistance will be "like adding gasoline to the fire" in communities already struggling with crime.

"If we had something to give them, some hope other than going back to the same street corner with the same behaviors that put them in prison to begin with, that would be one thing," he said. "But there is nothing out there."

A delicate balance

Ozmint said he is willing to listen to proposals for early release, but he's hesitant to weigh in on the matter until he gets more information. He said the subject is a delicate one, and changes could lead to litigation.

In the past, Ozmint has issued strong warnings to lawmakers about the consequences of under-funding prisons. Even with deficits, South Carolina operates one of the cheapest prison systems in the country, he said, spending the least in the nation for inmates' food and medical costs.

Still, others share Leatherman's concerns. Rep. Dan Cooper, a Piedmont Republican who leads budgets talks in the House, is among them.

"We're reaching that critical point where we're going to have to make some changes," Cooper said.

He said the Legislature should lean on the report released this month by the state's Sentencing Reform Commission as a guidepost for how to structure an early-release program.

The report aims to relieve prison overcrowding by diverting drug users and other non-violent offenders to probation and other supervision programs.

The commission did not provide recommendations for the early release of prisoners, but Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, a Charleston Republican, said the report could be adapted to allow nonviolent inmates to be shifted into community supervision.

The money saved by freeing up those prison beds could then be used to expand probation and parole programs, he said.

But Sen. Gerald Malloy, a Hartsville Democrat who leads the commission, said early release would be ill-advised and do nothing to improve a prison system that is an "utter failure."

Malloy said anything short of a holistic approach to prison reform puts public safety in jeopardy. "We're stuck trying to create a delicate balance to keep our citizens safe," Malloy said.

Reach Yvonne Wenger at ywenger@postandcourier.com or 803-926-7855. Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.