Editorial: Alternatives to prison

Saturday, Feb. 17, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

Nevada's prison population is growing so fast that both short- and long-term solutions have been proposed by the state Corrections Department.

For the short term, $22.4 million worth of temporary cells is being proposed. If the 2007 Legislature does not come through with this funding, the state prison system will be in danger of being taken over by a federal court within a year.

For the long term, the department proposes that the state get started on a $300 million construction program, so that at least 3,000 more beds will be available by 2012.

Nevada, with nearly 13,000 inmates, is not alone in facing this problem. A study released this week by the Pew Charitable Trusts revealed that the prison population nationwide will increase by 200,000 inmates over the next five years.

But is building more cells the only answer? The study says no.

Susan Urahn, manager of Pew's policy initiatives, said states have alternatives. "What we have seen is there are a growing number of states really focused, not on being tough on crime or soft on crime, but on being smart about crime," she said.

Such discussion is taking place here, as well it should be - the study showed that Nevada, at 27 percent, is tied with Wyoming for having the sixth-highest projected increase of prison inmates.

Assembly Democrats this week, during a meeting of the Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation, talked about whether to give judges more discretion in sentencing offenders instead of continuing with mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

We would go along with this concept, but only for nonviolent offenders. In our view, it is worth the expense of building more prisons to keep people behind bars who have beaten or shot their victims.

But for nonviolent offenders, there are a number of alternatives to prison, such as home confinement and drug treatment programs, and judges should be given discretion to impose them.