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| Lawmakers' Proposal Would Transform Conn. Prisons |
| By The Day |
| Published: 09/19/2003 |
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A band of state legislators announced a plan last week that it believes would transform the culture of Connecticut's prison system and shrink the number of inmates behind bars. 'They're not only technical rule changes, they're attitude changes,' said Rep. Mike Lawlor, D- East Haven. Lawlor and a contingent of lawmakers from New Haven and West Hartford are working on a draft bill that would, among other things, give judges more discretion to deviate from mandatory minimum sentences, allow the governor to send 2,000 inmates to out-of-state prisons and create a full-time Board of Parole staffed by trained professionals. Proposals with similar provisions failed in past sessions, but sponsoring legislators hope that mounting expenditures for prisons will help provide the momentum necessary for passage. 'There are parts of it that are entirely non-controversial,' Lawlor said. 'At a minimum we'll do those things.' The legislators - Lawlor; Rep. Bill Dyson, D-New Haven; Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven; and Rep. Bob Farr, R-West Hartford - have scheduled a public hearing on the measure Sept. 24. The proposal is in response to the dramatic surge in Connecticut's imprisoned population over the last decade. From July 1, 1990, to July 1, 2003, the state's imprisoned population has doubled, from 9,589 to 19,121. During the same period, prison expenditures have increased 183 percent, from roughly $186 million to $530 million. While many of the proposals in a draft version of the bill, such as merging the administrative functions of the Board of Parole with the Department of Correction, are apt to meet little resistance, others are more tenuous. Among the most contentious are provisions that would broaden the number of nonviolent crimes for which judges could deviate from mandatory minimum prison terms. Current law gives judges discretion only in specific nonviolent drug cases. The bill would also raise, from half a gram to a gram, the amount of crack cocaine one could possess before being subject to a mandatory prison term. Current sentencing guidelines treat crack possession more severely than possession of an equal weight of powder cocaine. Dyson said the discrepancy unfairly targets minority communities, where crack is most prevalent. Some of the technical legal changes, Dyson and Lawlor said, would serve to change a culture that is focused more on imprisonment than efforts to reduce recidivism. The legislators share the view that finding alternatives to incarceration and helping inmates re-enter society will do as much, if not more, to reduce the prison population than technical changes alone. As currently drafted, the bill would require the corrections department to solicit proposals for a community justice center with 500 or more beds for parole and probation violators, allow greater discretion to sentence nonviolent offenders to substance abuse treatment programs, and mandate both the Judicial Branch and Board of Parole to draft plans to reduce the number of probationers and parolees sent back to prison for technical violations of their release. The bill also calls for prisoners who have served a specific percentage of their sentences to be released from prison prior to the completion of their prison term, unless the inmate committed crimes or was a discipline problem while behind bars. The plan would increase the amount of inmates supervised and supported upon their release from prison, rather than having inmates serve their full terms and return to society with no assistance. |
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