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Tough-on-crime initiatives often run into the roadblock of financial realities. Such is the case in Indiana’s prison system, which has effectively reached capacity for higher-security adult men yet still takes in 1,000 or more new prisoners each year, as Niki Kelly’s Sunday story explained.
Yet Indiana lawmakers denied proposals for two prison expansions this year, and for good reason. Not only does prison space cost money, but it also requires more staff, adding yearly expenses. And society’s experience with prisons has been if you build it, they will come: With less incentive to seek alternatives, the judicial system will fill prisons.
Many Hoosiers like the idea of putting criminals in prison and forcing them to serve entire sentences, but they hedge at the monumental cost.
In addition, prisons have bleak records in reforming inmates.
So lawmakers again must examine tough laws that put Hoosiers in prison for drug possession and other non-violent crimes. They must again examine ways to expand cost-effective programs such as drug and re-entry courts, which judge criminals but also help them with job and life skills to reduce their chances of re-offending.
They must continue to seek ways to make home detention and work-release programs available and secure.
Prisons are necessary to protect society from the most violent criminals, but alternatives for non-violent criminals are most cost-effective and can often achieve reformation when prison cannot.
