Commentary

TREATMENT'S OFTEN MORE COST-EFFECTIVE

Last week, we learned that Attorney General John Ashcroft is asking
prosecutors to report any judges who fail to mete out the minimum prison
time required under federal sentencing guidelines.

This week, we learned from Ashcroft's agency that one in 37 Americans, or
5.6 million, are either incarcerated or have been incarcerated in a state
or federal prison.

The classic line from the prison movie "Cool Hand Luke" immediately comes
to mind: "What we've got here is failure to communicate."

In the movie, prisoner Luke is forced to repeatedly dig holes, then fill
them in. In real life, we pass tough legislation, then dig more holes when
that doesn't work.

But budget writers, judges and law enforcement officials are beginning to
break this unproductive cycle by taking a closer look at whom society
incarcerates and for how long.

The tough-on-crime industry has spawned a huge surge in the number of
prisons, all of which need guards, food and health-care services. The cost
of housing a prisoner in Washington state is about $24,000 a year.

Prison costs have taken an increasingly larger portion of budget revenues
over the years. That's the part politicians don't tell you when they pound
the pulpit for tougher laws. That's the part Ashcroft doesn't factor in
while compiling judicial watch lists.

Rather than attempting to intimidate judges, the Justice Department would
be wise to study its own statistics and listen to those who say the current
punishment model isn't working. For one thing, we incarcerate far too many
people who actually need mental health services and drug and alcohol treatment.

A Columbia University study in 1998 showed that Idaho spent 10.8 percent of
its budget dealing with alcohol and drug abuse. Washington state spent 11
percent on the same while spending 9 percent on transportation. In both
states, less than 5 percent of that spending was for prevention and
treatment. Most of the money went to law enforcement.

In other words, the states focused their efforts at the point of arrest,
which then leads to incarceration. The same is true when it comes to mental
illness. Over the years, states have let mentally ill patients go from
institutions only to see them again as prisoners.

That's the most expensive route to take. Every dollar spent on treatment
for addicts and the mentally ill heads off $12 in criminal justice costs,
according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

In a guest column for The Spokesman-Review this year, retired Judge Jim
Murphy noted that the cost of incarcerating drug criminals in Washington
state in 2001 was $80 million. Most of those convicts committed relatively
minor offenses.

"Our jails have become the asylums of our new era," Peter Lukevich, a
former municipal court judge in Tukwila, wrote in a subsequent guest
column. He noted that one in three inmates at county jails suffers from
mental illness Such people cost $21,000 a year to incarcerate, but $1,800 a
year to treat.

Why are taxpayers being punished this way? Because our leaders are failing
to communicate with each other -- and with us.

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written by members of the editorial board, who are listed on this page.