By Chris Fitzsimon
There is nothing positive about the budget shortfall in North Carolina that legislative economists say could reach $1.6 billion next year, maybe $2.6 billion when you add in the problems with the State Health Plan and a small cost-of-living increase for state employees and teachers.
But maybe the budget crisis will finally force state lawmakers to take seriously pleas to invest in programs that save money and are sound public policies that turn lives around. Nowhere is that more possible than in the criminal justice world.
North Carolina currently has 40,208 people locked up in the state prison system, many of them nonviolent offenders convicted of drug offenses. It costs taxpayers just under $27,000 a year to keep an inmate behind bars, where they are unable to pay restitution to victims, take care of their families or work and pay taxes.
The state has several programs that divert nonviolent offenders from prison into treatment and rehabilitation programs and most of them are woefully underfunded. Some lawmakers fear being branded as soft on crime if they vote not to lock everybody up. They enthusiastically support building new prisons, even when the state budget is tight.
Others readily admit the programs save money and lives, but other funding needs always seem to come first. The Rutherford Daily Courier and the Jacksonville Daily News recently ran stories about two of the programs that work. Let’s hope lawmakers were paying attention.
The Daily Courier reported on the first anniversary of the Rutherford County Drug Court that sends drug offenders to intensive treatment instead of prison and costs just a fraction of the bill for keeping someone behind bars. And the program works.
The drug court has administered 1,486 drug tests to offenders in its first year; 1,420 were clean (97 percent). The offenders have strict reporting requirements in addition to drug tests and also must complete work for a GED if they don’t have a high school diploma. Then they must look for work.
Offenders who can’t meet the expectations go to prison, but the majority of drug-court participants don’t end up behind bars; most turn their lives around. The law-enforcement community recognizes the effectiveness of the program too and supports increasing its funding.
Only 21 counties in the state have a drug court. All 100 counties have people with drug problems in their courtrooms and in their jails.
The conservative Jacksonville Daily News recently featured another program to keep people out of prison: Day Reporting, an intensive probation system that costs the state $5,000 a year and allows offenders to keep their jobs if they follow the program’s strict reporting rules.
Day Reporting also provides access to GED classes and substance-abuse services. Roughly half of the people in Day Reporting stay out of trouble and stay out of prison, giving them a second chance and leaving a prison cell vacant for a violent offender who is dangerous to the public.
The Drug Court and Day Reporting are just two of the alternatives to incarceration that need to be expanded. Maybe the state budget crisis will help.
No one can dispute that the programs will save money immediately, as much as $20,000 for every person diverted from prison. No can dispute that the programs save lives either, by keeping families together and giving people with an addiction another chance.
Lawmakers will face tough choices next year as they struggle to fill a $2 billion hole and balance the budget. Expanding investments in prison alternatives seems like an obvious place to start.
Chris Fitzsimon is the director of NC Policy Watch.
Does the public know about Sentencing Services as well as the Criminal Justice Partnership Program statewide? Both are designed to divert offenders from prison, and make every effort to turn damaged lives around. These two cost-effective programs are “best-kept secrets” and deserve recognition for their important contribution not just in saving tax dollars, but saving lives, families, and our communities as a whole. Learn more about Sentencing Services through the NC Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and the Criminal Justice Partnership Program (CJPP) through the NC Department of Corrections.