CRIME: MISSOURI IS TOUGH & SMART

The 87th General Assembly grappled with two of the year's most hotly contested issues -- crime and the fear of crime -- and in the final days of the second session, passed noteworthy legislation that provides both immediate and longer lasting reductions in criminal activity. It reduces the six percent rate of increase in reported crime by focusing on those who break the law -- violent felons and drug involved offenders -- and the Department of Corrections which confines those criminals. Under statute the Department becomes a place for preparation as well as confinement. We will administer both sterner and swifter sentences and mandatory skills training and basic habilitative services. The State codified tougher and smarter public safety policy through the adoption of truth in sentencing guidelines that are precedent setting. Missouri's legislation makes the best use of its limited prison beds for its taxpayers by keeping dangerous offenders longer and serving substance abusing inmates smarter than before.

The Governor's public safety program is tough. It targets dangerous criminals, one out of four felons who do irreparable harm, for longer sentences. All offenders convicted of dangerous crimes -- robbery 1st, assault 1st, arson 1st, kidnapping, forcible rape, forcible sodomy -- will serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentence in secure confinement. It requires all other felons whose crimes such as theft, forgery and burglary affect our quality of life to serve more mandatory minimum time behind the wall as well. It more than doubles the time "lifers" will do.

The Governor's public safety program is smart. It recognizes that all but a few offenders return to the community and when these offenders return home they must be crime-free and, they must be prepared to pay their debt to society by becoming productive citizens. Two thirds of the population are high school dropouts. As many have no work history. Most are drug involved. The legislation mandates prison as a place for preparation for inmates to become literate, employed, sober ex-offenders. It mandates confinement as the time for every inmate who is a high school dropout to earn a high school equivalency diploma. It mandates confinement as the time for every inmate who was unemployed at arrest to acquire job finding and keeping skills while behind the wall. Confinement is the time for every inmate to get off and keep off drugs and avoid alcohol and become open and willing to seek relapse prevention and recovery as needed. It is the time for them to mend fences and build bridges back to family and friends. It is their time to start both community restitution and victim compensation.

The Governor's public safety program is practical. It recognizes that when dangerous inmates and other serious and repeat felons are held longer in a system that is well over capacity, more beds and additional places or programs are necessary. A House Joint Resolution sends to voters later this year the proposal to fund three correctional facilities -- two prisons and one community release center -- vis a vis a general obligation bond to add as many as 3,250 beds to the system within the next three years. A Sentencing Advisory Committee is charged with the development of a system of recommended sentences within statutory guidelines on or before July 1, 1995 to ensure punishment is administered evenly by the various circuit courts statewide. This means that no more new prison beds than absolutely necessary are built over time.

The Governor's public safety program is comprehensive. It recognizes that government must be as concerned about the causes of crime as its effects. Over one third of all inmates admitted to the Department are convicted of drug offenses. As many as 70 percent of the rest of the offender population are drug involved. This session three types of sanctions for targeted probationers, prisoners and parolees were created, each sanction requiring mandatory drug treatment. Soon, first time, non-violent drug-involved inmates can be fast tracked to substance abuse services by the Department and retained in treatment by the court for as long as necessary for offenders to overcome their addiction to drugs and a crime prone lifestyle. It authorizes as well the establishment of a Crime Prevention Information Clearinghouse from which local law enforcement authorities and service providers can draw resources.

The Governor's public safety program is based on facts. It does not rely on simple solutions to a complex issue. It eschews cliches. Incarceration in general and three strike proposals in particular do not deter criminals. The state's rate of incarceration has increased 247 percent and exceeds the 50 states' average. Concurrently, violent crime increased 54 percent. Felons do not approach criminal activity as a "cost benefit" analysis of conduct and consequences. We do. Accordingly, the legislation identifies different types of offenders -- dangerous offenders, repeat offenders, non-violent offenders -- and mandates for each the kinds of punishment and preparation that match our sensibilities and need for safety now and later. It pulls out those inmates who are predatory and persistent criminals for more punishment. This keeps us safer now. It also puts in place mandatory programs for every offender who will be released after their sentence is served. This keeps us safer later.

The Governor's public safety program is tough. It is smart. It is practical. It is comprehensive. It is the real deal. It puts the Show-Me State on the map as the place where the nation is shown what can be done back home to fight crime and the fear of crime.

Dora B. Schriro is director of the Missouri Department of Corrections.