POLITICS

It's the "gel lough on crime' fall campaign season again
by Charles N. Wheeler III

Autumn in Illinois, a time when the crisp fall air is filled with falling leaves, flying footballs and, in even-numbered years, of course, politicians flaying felons.

As Campaign '96 draws to a close, "let's get tough on crime" seems once again to be a rallying cry for current legislators and their would-be replacements.

Adding spice to this year's version of the perennial theme has been a series of Illinois House hearings into the purported management shortcomings of the Illinois corrections department. At the hearings, triggered by an X-rated videotape of the late mass murderer Richard Speck and a fellow inmate having sex and apparently snorting cocaine, lawmakers listened to accounts of "picnics" and "banquets" in which inmates mingled freely with family and friends, and heard allegations that street gangs were running the prisons.

The picture that emerged from the hearings is disturbing, but it should not be startling. Consider the facts:

• Illinois prisons are overcrowded. Currently, almost 40, 000 inmates are crammed into facilities designed for less than 26, 000. Only eight states were operating with an inmate population at a higher percentage of rated capacity last year, according to the Criminal Justice Institute. And although the state has been opening prisons at the rate of one a year since 1980, the system is more crowded now than when ground was broken for the first of these new facilities.

Overcrowding in prisons leads to less control over and more violence among inmates, in turn making working conditions more dangerous for the staff.

• Illinois prisons are understaffed. Since 1985, the ratio of staff to inmates has dropped by nearly a third, according to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing most prison workers. In Illinois last year, the average was one correctional officer for every 5.9 inmates at adult facilities; nationally, it was one officer for every 5.3 adult prisoners. Thirty states had better guard ratios, the Criminal Justice Institute reported.

• Everyone in prison is there because they were found guilty of breaking the law. Many — perhaps most — serious offenders are amoral, antisocial, dangerously violent predators; in short, really rotten people. Should it come as any surprise that these lawbreakers have little respect for prison rules, either?

Overcrowding and understaffing lead to less control over and more violence among inmates, in turn making working conditions more dangerous for staff, who suffer more than 1, 000 assaults a year. Moreover, the security problems found in the prison environment only reflect the social pathologies outside the walls. Are there gang and drug problems in prison? You bet, just as there are gangs and drugs in big cities, small towns and rural areas throughout the state.

Given the realities of the state's prison system, what ideas should concerned Illinoisans look for from candidates this campaign season?

For starters, one might demand that politicians vying to outdo each other as hard-nosed crime fighters also provide some explanation of how they'd cover the added expense of more offenders serving longer terms. At $16, 000 a year for housing the average wrongdoer, the costs do mount. For example, the state's most recent crackdown, the truth-in-sentencing law enacted a year ago, carried an estimated $320 million price tag over the next 10 years. And no, a generic "cutting waste" is not an adequate answer.

Even if no new measures pass, politicians and public alike need to recognize that money must be spent to build more prisons, add cells to existing facilities and hire more correctional officers.

In particular. House Democrats ought to reverse their past refusal to vote for additional state borrowing for prison construction. Granted, Democratic concern that new bond sales would bankroll pork-barrel projects in Republican districts may have been justified; GOP leaders packed the FY '97 budget with a long list of home district projects of dubious statewide priority. A measure could be drafted, however, to permit borrowing only for prison construction, and ideally

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Besides new cells and additional staff, the need exists for more educational, vocational and substance abuse programs. Why, one might ask, should prisoners enjoy any of these perks? The answer lies in the fact that most inmates will return to society someday. Their chances of going straight obviously would be much better if they were literate, employable and drug- free. Thus, logic suggests, such programs are better seen as prudent investments rather than prisoner privileges.

Yet some 6, 000 inmates are on waiting lists for educational programs. Substance abuse treatment and education, meanwhile, reach less than half of the estimated 70 percent of adult inmates who enter prison with a history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Illinoisans must be open to the fact that a prison term might not be the most appropriate disposition for every lawbreaker.

Finally, Illinoisans must be open to the fact that a prison term might not be the most appropriate disposition for every lawbreaker.

Researchers at the Center for Legal Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield recently completed a study of Class 4 felony offenders, the least serious crime for which imprisonment is possible and the fastest growing inmate category. While the report concluded that most Class 4 offenders are "exactly where they should be," the researchers noted that a significant number were first offenders for whom some punishment other than imprisonment might be suitable.

And the prison workers' union has suggested that electronic detention or community correctional programs might be appropriate for some of the estimated 14, 000 inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses.

"It's not enough to get tough on crime," noted one AFSCME official, "we must be smart as well." That's advice voters should keep in mind in the next few weeks as they listen to the candidates' law-and-order rhetoric.

Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Illinois Issues October 1996 ¦ 43