New Approach To Crime and Punishment

The Denver Post
By Ari Zavaras and Pete Weir

From the moment Gov. Bill Ritter took office in January 2007, he has made public safety one of his top priorities. That commitment included the launch of several innovative initiatives aimed at reducing Colorado's prison recidivism rate.

"More than half of Department of Corrections' inmates wind up back in prison within three years," Gov. Ritter said in his first State of the State address. "That's simply an unacceptable number. The costs are spiraling out of control and eating into our ability to fund education and health care. We can do better here in Colorado, and we're going to."

With a sharp increase in prison inmates and costs over the past decade, we now spend 9 percent of state government's General Fund housing 23,000 prison inmates, which is more than we invest in educating approximately 220,000 college students. With declining revenues and an ongoing budget crisis, that imbalance is becoming more and more pronounced.

Ritter, who spent 25 years as a criminal prosecutor, recently introduced a two-year pilot program that will advance his anti-recidivism initiatives and save taxpayers nearly $20 million this fiscal year. This is a responsible plan, one that has the support of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police. In the face of overheated political rhetoric, it's important to separate fact from fiction.

This plan will:

• Accelerate the transition off of parole for 2,600 offenders who have met their parole goals and completed at least half of their parole term.

• Reinvest savings from this transition into front-loaded, enhanced services and supervision for new parolees.

• Accelerate the transition from prison to parole for 3,500 eligible offenders who would leave prison within six months anyway.

This is not a California plan, where the prison population is being reduced by 27,300 inmates, or an Illinois plan, where 1,000 prison jobs are being cut.

This is a carefully crafted, moderate Colorado plan. It is based in evidence and research. It is strategic and grounded in recommendations from the nonpartisan Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, and it fully engages the Parole Board in the decision-making process. Offenders who are likely to re-offend are likely to go nowhere. They will continue serving their sentences.

According to the Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project, Arizona, Maryland, Nevada and Pennsylvania are following a similar strategy. Maryland's results are particularly impressive. Colorado should be on this list.