OVERCROWDING OF PRISONS SPURS ALTERNATIVE CHOICES

The United States houses more people in its prisons than any other country in the world. Crime rates increase every year, with no realistic end in sight.

Prison overcrowding has become a problem that all states must deal with, most by coming up with alternative methods of punishment.

During the first six months of 1991, prison populations grew 3.5 percent in the South and Midwest, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

On June 30, 1991, the number of male prisoners reached a record 588 sentenced offenders (inmates sentenced to a year or more in prison) for every 100,000 males in the state.

The nation's state and federal prison population grew by 30,149 inmates - just under 4 percent - during the first half of that year to reach a record 804,524 men and women.

At the end of 1990, probation and parole agencies were supervising more than 3.2 million adults in the U.S.

"Missouri prisons are like a tube that's open at both ends," said Van Hecke, a parole officer with the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole. "When you stuff someone in one end, someone else has to fall out the other end.

"It's our job to find alternative measures of punishment, incarceration or parole that will allow the dangerous criminals to stay in prison, and the non-violent offenders to serve out their sentences by some other means," Hecke continued.

The Missouri Board of Probation and Parole has developed a Community Corrections program which is a multi-leveled "options-plus" plan providing alternative methods of incarceration.

Offenders are evaluated by the parole board on the basis of their treatment needs and the level of risk they present to the community. Once the risk and needs are identified, the offender can be matched to the community corrections program that seems most appropriate.

Convicted persons can then be released into a series of programs, each designed to meet the specific needs of the situation.

The Community Corrections program provides maximum, medium and minimum custody supervision; an Honor Center where inmates check in and report their activities; and forms of intensive, regular and minimum probation supervision.

Depending upon where on the scale the criminal enters into the system, he or she will follow each step until their time is served or they are consentually released.

Overall, approximately 78 percent of offenders who are assigned to Community Corrections programs successfully complete the program. The electronic monitoring program has an estimated 80 percent success rate.

Successful completion of a Community Corrections program does not result in the discharge from supervision, but allows the offender to transfer to a less structured form of community supervision.

According to a judicial newsletter, a 1989 survey of Missouri citizens and criminal justice professionals revealed that the general public is willing to support community-based supervision for some offenders, especially those who present relatively low levels of risk or are in need of treatment programs.

Circuit Judge A.J. Seier, who was very active in bringing the program to the region, keeps the option of electronic monitoring in mind when sentencing first-time or petty offenders.

Seier also suggests the Sheriff's Department use the program whenever they feel it would be appropriate.

Circuit Judge William L. Syler, who took office in October, has yet to recommend a candidate for the electronic monitoring program.

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department has as many as 10 people on the program at one time; Lt. Ruth Ann Dickerson is now monitoring four.

The Cape Girardeau County parole office has had as many as 23 people on the electronic monitoring program at one time; Hecke now has nine clients.

An estimated 750 people per year are released through the electronic shackling program statwide.

The goal of the Community Corrections program and others like it is to punish offenders while integrating them back into society, and allowing them to rehabilitate themselves in a positive environment.