BAIT AND SWITCH: MORE PRISONS `FIGHT CRIME' AS STATISTICS DROP

Mike Lybyer, chairman of the Missouri Senate's Appropriations for Education and Public Safety Committee, recently asked how the state could "keep from building more prisons." Finding a solution, the chairman emphasized, "could be one of the best things you could do for higher education."

For many reasons, this was an astute observation. Of immediate consequence, though, is the skewed priorities we have developed in the amount we invest in economically debilitating corrections as opposed to remunerative and culturally invigorating higher education in the Show Me State.

The governor's proposed budget invests $360 million in the administration of the public university system, while it would spend $430 million in operating prisons. These sums, however, do not account for one new $11.6 million university building and $166.2 million for construction of two more prisons and expansion of others.

Over the past 15 years, spending on corrections has grown from 2.9 percent to a proposed 7.9 percent of the budget, while the University of Missouri's share has shrunk to 6.6 percent. We now spend more of our tax dollars to incarcerate our citizens that to educate our children at the critical higher levels.

What type of future are we building? By looking to other commonwealths, we can all too clearly see the grim future.

California and Florida already spend more on corrections than higher education. Correspondingly, it can be argued, the quality of life has suffered in those states as well.

New York Gov. George Pataki's proposed budget tellingly highlights how all areas of a state's social investment is adversely affected by unrestrained correctional spending. In a state experiencing a 20 percent decrease in crime the past four years, the governor proposes an $810 million increase to his nearly $2 billion prison budget. This would necessitate a $700 million cut from elderly care and hospital co-payments, $450 from public education and 11.8 percent tuition increase at state universities.

Let there be no doubt. These are the same self-punitive choices Missouri taxpayers are making as our prison population unnecessarily swells to 33,000 from 22,000 by the turn of the century. The annual operations budget alone, not considering the billion dollars in construction and finance costs, will exceed $650 million -- 12 percent of today's general tax revenue.

State Rep. Pat Dougherty has commented that we cannot build our way out of crime. "I don't understand how we can continue to come back to the Legislature every two years and ask for a new prison. That's ridiculous."

The observation is especially poignant during a time when violent crimes of murder, rape and robbery fell by an aggregate 17 percent between 1993 and 1995. Nonviolent offenses experienced a similar decrease. In 1994, right in the middle of this downward trend, however, fewer than 22 percent of felons sent off to costly incarceration were violent offenders. Two-thirds of those inducted into the state's penal system were serving five years or less and had never before been incarcerated.

Even with violent criminals serving longer terms, evening out inmate demographics overall, dangerous felons were only 52 percent of the prison population at the close of 1996, with 14 percent incarcerated for drug offenses and 29 percent for property crimes. From this it is easy to understand why 157 prison wardens surveyed by the U.S. Senate believed that half of those under their supervision would not be a danger to society if released.

In other words, if public safety is the primary intent of our correctional system, we are locking up twice as many people as we need to. This seems especially true when, for example, nearly 1,000 people were sent to prison in 1995 for felony stealing, which is the theft of anything valued at more than $150. Moreover, for 20 percent of those offenders, this was their only conviction.

The reason Missouri has earned the dubious distinction as the national leader in prison construction is that the citizens have been sold one product and delivered another. The politicians have repeatedly campaigned for more prisons to protect us from violent criminals -- and judges have sent eight out of 10 new felons off to expensive incarceration for nonviolent offenses.

Sentenced to terms 15 percent longer than the national average, Missouri offenders serve more of their penalties behind bars than those in any other state. Adding to this intense congestion, the discretion of earlier earned release provided by parole is poorly utilized. Between 1993 and 1996, the prison population grew by 6,000 inmates, yet the number of paroles granted each year did not change.

While a new prison provides local economic stimulus, the cost in diverted spending elsewhere is tremendous. Furthermore, there "is not one iota of proof," states retired Federal Bureau of Prisons warden Dennis Luther, that severe punishment acts as a deterrent.

Politicians promoting more prisons to "fight crime" are employing the snake-oil sales tactic of bait and switch.

Jon Marc Taylor is a Missouri prison inmate.