Prison sense

It wasn't that many years ago that Missourians, like residents of so many other states, were clamoring for tougher sentencing for convicted offenders as crime rates soared. Many state legislatures responded by imposing tough mandatory sentences. As a result, state legislators also were faced with appropriating millions of dollars for new prisons, staffing and other expenses related to the cost of imprisoning offenders. Missouri experienced a boom in prison construction until it reached the point of not being able to afford to immediately open a new prison near Bonne Terre, Mo.

Meanwhile, Missouri agreed in 2002 to be a pilot for a national group's effort to reduce recidivism among convicts returning to society. In 2005, when Missouri's prison population peaked at 30,700 inmates, new sentencing guidelines were introduced. Under these new guidelines, nonviolent offenders were often sentenced to community-based sanctions rather than prison terms.

As Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, who led the team that produced the new sentencing guidelines, said earlier this month, statistics indicate that putting nonviolent offenders in prions with violent offenders produces more violent offenders. But since the new guidelines went into effect, the state's prison population has been reduced by 700.

Currently, Missouri's prison population is about evenly divided between violent and nonviolent offenders. The aim is to change that ratio so fewer nonviolent offenders are behind bars. In Virginia, nonviolent offenders rarely receive prison sentences, which means its prisons are reserved almost entirely for violent offenders.

Judge Wolff believes the statistics speak for themselves. Every indication is that Missouri is on the right track, which means the spiral of new prisons and mounting correctional expense may be over.