Prison Change Seen As Essential

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By New London Day

Published: 09/26/2003

After a hearing with national and state officials Wednesday, legislative leaders have pledged
to consider a prison-reform bill during a special session next month.
Before a joint hearing of the General Assembly's Appropriations and Judiciary committees the
officials said Connecticut's prison system must be overhauled to control costs, bolster public
safety and reduce recidivism.
Barbara Tombs, a speaker from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, agreed and said
common sense dictates that the system be reformed.
In the last decade, the state's prison population has increased nearly 75 percent, from 11,022
to 19,121. During the same period, prison expenditures have increased roughly 85 percent, from
$286 million to $530 million.
Speakers Wednesday addressed a range of issues plaguing Connecticut's criminal justice system,
including the lack of substance-abuse treatment for offenders and the absence of an adequate
system of incremental penalties to provide alternatives to prison for nonviolent criminals.
Connecticut is beyond capacity.
The draft bill that will be considered next month contains a provision to allow the state to
send 2,000 prisoners to out-of-state prisons. Five hundred Connecticut inmates are currently
jailed in a Virginia prison.
Other provisions of the bill would:
Give judges more discretion to deviate from mandatory minimum sentences for certain
nonviolent crimes.
Require the Department of Correction to solicit proposals for a so-called Community Justice
Center in Hartford with a minimum of 500 beds for parole and probation violators and pre-trial
prisoners.
Allow judges and attorneys greater access to substance-abuse treatment in lieu of prison
sentences.
Allow for the release of prisoners who have served a specific percentage of their sentences,
unless the inmate committed crimes or was a discipline problem while behind bars.
Increase from a half-gram to an ounce the amount of crack cocaine a person could possess
before being subject to a mandatory prison sentence.
If all goes as planned, lawmakers will debate the bill during a legislative session beginning
Oct. 15.

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