MISSOURI WATCH: MISSOURI'S BILLION-DOLLAR BILLY CLUB

More and more frequently the recurring nightmare of pervasive crime in Missouri disturbs my sleep and before I am fully awake, I imagine a society that tries, but fails miserably, to protect itself from drug-crazed criminals.

While still not a nightmare for Missourians who inhabit the state's farms, villages and small cities, the terror has already become reality for residents of Missouri's large urban areas, where the drug culture has become the predominate factor of everyday life, where 8-year-olds bearing dangerous weapons can, and do, kill at will, and where every street corner has become the invulnerable marketplace of drug dealers.

This urban blight helps explain why officials in Jefferson City propose to spend more than $1 billion in the next fiscal year fighting and attempting to prevent crime. It explains why at least five state departments and even more divisions have become engaged in battling the drug epidemic, preventing crime and incarcerating those who have already been found guilty.

It helps explain why the fastest growing "community" in Missouri is the Department of Corrections whose current statistics, bound to be revised upward in a short time, record 243 new prisoners every month, and why, despite record construction of new cells, the agency will find itself short of adequate accommodations in less than five years.

The state's current prison population---21,629 at the end of last month---makes the system larger than the population of 74 of Missouri's 114 counties. Within a very short time, there will be more prisoners in state lockup than live in 85 of the 114 counties. And these totals do not include the men and women on parole or probation, those serving criminal sentences in county and municipal jails or those now in the process of passage through the court system.

--These statistics, as huge and startling as they are, might seem bearable, even manageable, if even one of the following statements was correct:

1. There is statistical evidence that the number of Missourians headed for prison at this moment will decline in the future.

2. The leading cause of criminal activity---the sale and use of illegal drugs---shows signs of being controllable, with cause for optimism that substance abuse is being reduced.

3. The state is committing increased resources to prevention, treatment and after-care of its drug population.

4. Corrections officials believe the number of men and women entering the criminal justice system will begin to decline by the year 2000.

5. More and more funds are being committed at the local and state level to separate criminals who engaged in serious criminal activity while under the influence of drugs or alcohol and those who have criminal pathology symptoms that brought about their entry into criminal activity.

If just one of the above five statements were true, then Missourians would be justified in being a little more optimistic than they are at this moment. If two or three of these statements possessed a grain of truth, then we would not be remiss in unbridled jubilation.

Unfortunately, as noted earlier, not one of these five component statements holds true in our state. Missouri's criminal class is increasing, at rapid rates in certain areas, and the state is spending no more today to prevent, treat or provide after-care to alcohol and drug abuse patients per capita than it spent five years ago. The demographics of Missouri present a continuing bleak picture of how many new substance abusers there will be in the next five and ten years from now. Beyond that, there can be no accurate projections for a variety of reasons, not the least being the ability of Missouri by the year 2000 or 2010 to fund treatment programs that must be geared to unprecedented demands.

To make the picture even worse than it appears in black and white is the absence of hard data among the current prison population as to the causes of their criminal activity. How many of the nearly 22,000 men and women imprisoned for committing felony offenses were under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol? How many were pathologically motivated to commit not just one or two serious crimes but involved in a long and psychotic career of crime? How many are behind maximum security bars because they committed a single crime of passion, against a family member or spouse, and will probably remain crime-free for the remainder of their lives?

There are a couple of other important questions that should be added to the above list. One is how many drug-induced criminals are spending their incarceration being treated for their serious illness and how many are simply undergoing detoxification without any clinical or psychological counseling? How many young criminals would have better recovery odds if they were in so-called "boot camps" rather than mixed with hardened criminals in maximum security units? And how many now in prison would have a better prognosis if they were on parole or probation rather than serving hard time?

As tragic as it may seem, the state cannot answer any of the questions listed above. Missouri doesn't even know how many prisoners in maximum security units engaged in crime because of illegal drug abuse. The reason I am certain the state does not have the answer to this question is that I asked the Governor of Missouri for the figure and he explained this information was still in the process of being compiled.

If we don't know the answer to these very fundamental questions, how in the name of all that is holy can we expect to find answers beyond the knee-jerk build-more-cells agenda? Regrettably, the state isn't even asking the right questions.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.