Editorial: Rehabilitating a broken system

Saturday, April 21, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

It is no secret that Nevada's prison system is severely overcrowded because of many factors, including lack of funding, poor planning by state lawmakers and constraints placed on judges that limit their sentencing options. Another reason prison cells have been filling up is because of probation violations by former inmates.

As reported by the Associated Press, national prisons consultant James Austin on Tuesday told a legislative budget panel, which included members of the Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, that 40 percent of the individuals entering Nevada prisons are sent there because of probation violations. Of those, half are what Austin described as technical violations, such as not showing up for an appointment or failing a drug test.

It is inexcusable for a convicted felon, who has been given an opportunity to avoid prison, to flunk drug tests, miss appointments and fail to meet other requirements that courts hand down as conditions of probation. We agree with Austin's view that if the state spent money to make substance abuse treatment programs more readily available, that front-end investment could reduce the number of individuals who are sent to prison for violating probation. Instead, the number of residential substance abuse treatment beds available in Nevada has actually declined by 10 percent in the past few years, lawmakers were told.

The purpose of probation is to give offenders a chance to be rehabilitated , turn their lives around and become productive citizens. But this goal often isn't achieved.

We have previously warned that a federal court could take over our prison system if the crowding isn't addressed. If lawmakers can find the money to pay for more substance abuse programs and other services to help individuals on probation, the state could be spared from spending far greater sums of money on new or expanded prisons. It makes no sense to keep building expensive prison cells for some non-violent offenders if instead, with the proper treatment, we can keep from sending them there in the first place.

With lawmakers having been told that the state prison population could increase by 61 percent over the next 10 years, it is clear that more must be done on the front end to keep those increases to a minimum. Because solutions are available, lawmakers have no excuse to ignore Austin's advice.