TRANSFORMING PRISONERS

A state-run unified corrections system proposed by Gov. Baldacci would save taxpayers $7 million in the first year, growing to a total of almost $38 million by 2015, proponents claim. The governor is selling his state takeover of county jails on savings for the beleaguered Maine taxpayer. Less spending on cells and guards is certainly a good thing, but what may be even more compelling is the opportunity that comes with the governor’s plan to more successfully turn offenders into productive members of society.

Maine’s incarceration rate is 50th among U.S. states, and its spending on corrections is 45th, Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson said at a recent meeting at which he was pitching the governor’s jail takeover plan. But county budgets, driven by jail costs, have grown by an average of 9 percent in the last four years, he said. Collectively, more money is being spent, the commissioner suggested, but it is not being spent where it can make the biggest difference in the lives of offenders and communities.

Commissioner Magnusson said Maine’s pre-trial incarceration population, as a percentage of those in jails, is among the highest in the U.S.; 60 percent of those sitting in jail cells today are awaiting their day in court. And that population stays in jail two or three times longer than the national average. Many of those men and women do not need to be there, he said. They do not pose threats to society, yet they remain incarcerated on the public’s dime.

A fix the Corrections Department suggests is standardizing the bail process. Currently, someone arrested on a Friday night for being drunk and disorderly must face a bail commissioner, who weighs releasing the defendant – largely on subjective terms – against the risks of re-offending, flight or failing to appear in court. Under a state-run unified system, the bail process would be standardized, relying on a set of objective criteria, said Denise Lord, deputy commissioner. That could mean more prisoners are home the day after an offense.

As more money becomes available through consolidation of purchasing and staffing, the commissioner said, the state will be able to direct more resources toward the most critical phase in a convicted prisoner’s life: when he or she leaves the prison or jail. Eighty percent re-offend within 30 days of release.

Deputy Commissioner Lord said a release transition program would focus on risk factors for re-offending, such as substance abuse and inappropriate peer associations. Before prisoners leave, they are taught skills to avoid following the paths that led them to get into trouble in the first place, such as identifying the triggers that set off their bad behavior.

The jail consolidation plan is, above all, a reinvestment strategy, said Ms. Lord. Such redirected spending can change a prisoner’s destiny and reduce the unquantifiable but long-term costs of thrown-away lives. When legislators weigh the benefits of jail consolidation, these factors should be considered as seriously as the financial aspects.