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| Let's work together to bend the corrections cost curve |
| By alaskadispatch.com - Johnny Ellis |
| Published: 01/20/2012 |
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Alaska -- You may have seen a lot of news lately about the rising cost of Alaska’s corrections system. We have to face the facts: Prisons are incredibly expensive -- regardless of where or how they are built. It’s time for us to start focusing on why we have had to build a new prison in the first place. Alaska is not alone in its prison-cost woes. When Texas Republican Representative Jerry Madden was appointed chair of the Texas Department of Corrections budget committee, the very conservative Speaker of the Texas House sat him down and said: “Don’t build new prisons, they cost too much.” Those eight words shaped Madden’s work on the Texas corrections budget. At the Smart Justice Summit I hosted in early October, Representative Madden told the bipartisan panel that since he heard those eight words, Texas hasn’t built any new prisons. If a tough-on-crime state like Texas can stop spiraling prison costs, I believe Alaska can too. The high cost of building prisons is just the tip of the iceberg. Alaska’s yearly operating expense for the prison system tops $283 million, up from $210 million just three years ago -- an 11-percent increase annually -- driven primarily by the high rate at which ex-offenders return to prison after release. The Alaska Department of Corrections reports that 66 percent of all criminals go back to prison after release, but only a small percentage are going back for new crimes. Most return for violations of their probation or parole, and substance abuse is the overwhelming cause of those violations. In 2008 Texas faced a similar story: skyrocketing costs due to re-incarceration after release related to substance abuse and technical violations. Texas tackled this problem head-on, using data-driven cost-benefit analysis from sound business planning. Texas deployed taxpayer dollars on only the most cost-effective and proven strategies for reducing the rate at which ex-criminals reoffend and return to prison. Read More. |
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