Prisoners and college student

By CHARLES N. WHEELER III

Massive and foreboding like some medieval fortress, Stateville Correctional Center sits well back from Ill. 53 a few miles north of Joliet. Unlike castles of old, its grim walls aren't intended to protect those within from outside marauders. Instead, they're to safeguard the rest of us from the more than 1,900 dangerous criminals inside. For that peace of mind, Illinois taxpayers shelled out $17,144 last year for each inmate within its walls, according to a recent state audit.

Just a few hundred yards farther up the highway above the DesPlaines River valley is Lewis University, where for a little more than half of what it takes to keep one gang-banger at Stateville a student can receive a year's worth of quality, Christian Brothers education — including room, board and tuition — in any one of more than 50 majors. Ironically, the most the state of Illinois is willing to invest in a student at Lewis, no matter how promising he or she is, is $3,150, the maximum grant under the state scholarship commission's monetary award program.

Though strange neighbors, Stateville and Lewis seem apropos symbols of a current budget reality in Illinois — an evergrowing demand for prison dollars at a time when higher education is scraping for nickels and dimes.

The corrections department's operating budget has almost quadrupled under Gov. James R. Thompson, to its current level of $432 million from the $115 million spent in fiscal year 1978, his first full budget year. During that same span, higher education outlays increased only about 73 percent, to $1.35 billion in 1989 from $783 million in 1978. As a result, corrections' share of the state's general funds budget has more than doubled, while higher education's slice has declined about 7 percent.

The reason for the dramatic surge in prison spending is simple, and the end seems nowhere in sight. Heightened public concern about crime, a legislature keen on law-and-order issues and tougher judges have combined to send the inmate population in Illinois soaring, to more than 21,000 from the less than 12,000 behind prison walls in 1978.

And yet despite the most extensive prison building program in state history — one which already has added 10 new facilities, with three more in the wings — overcrowding remains a life-threatening problem. In fact, Michael J. Mahoney, executive director of the John Howard Association, a prison reform group, estimates that Illinois must add one new 750-bed prison each year for the next decade, just to keep up with projected growth, let alone deal with current overcrowding.

Not only is the prison population growing faster than beds can be a added, but it's becoming more dangerous as well. In 1977, 44 percent of those imprisoned had been convicted of serious, violent crimes like murder, armed robbery or rape; today, such violent offenders make up some 70 percent of the prison population. The number includes about 350 "lifers," murderers or three-time losers serving life sentences with no hope of parole, and that poses special discipline problems for prison officials, "How do you motivate an individual who's going to spend the rest of his life in prison?" notes Nic Howell, a department spokesman. 'There's really no way to impact them."

Attesting to growing violence within the walls, in the last seven years, seven prison employees have been killed in the line of duty, compared to 17 in the preceding six decades; seven inmates have been slain in the last three years. Moreover, recidivism rates contradict the notion that these are "correctional" institutions. For example, a recent three-year study of a selected group of inmates who were released in mid-1983 found that almost two-thirds of them were arrested at least once in the three years following their release, and more than one-third wound up back in prison in that period.

Clearly, there's something amiss. A new

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perspective is needed; new ideas on punishment are called for. Fortunately, some promising ones are in the making, proposed by groups like the John Howard Association and Justice Fellowship.

There's a growing consensus that "you can't build your way out of the problem," but must look for other options, says Mahoney, whose John Howard Association has long promoted that message. "The legislature is begining to see that," he said. "The reason is not hearts and flowers for the inmates, but the realization that an increasing proportion of our resources are going to prisons at the expense of education, mental health and other services." Prison reformers suggest a number of alternatives that merit consideration:

• The current criminal code with its determinate sentencing and plethora of mandatory minimum terms should be revised to permit judges to tailor sentences more closely to the circumstances of the crime and the rehabilitation of the offender.
• First-time and nonviolent offenders should be considered for alternative sentencing, such as intensive probation supervision, electronically monitored house arrest, "halfway in" houses similar to work release but for persons beginning their sentences, and community service and restitution.
• To aid judges and probation officers in devising meaningful sentences for nonviolent offenders, funding should be provided for a 1986 program aimed at providing individualized treatment and intervention services, especially for drug and alcohol abuser.
• Inmate education, literacy and work programs should be expanded and upgraded. The prison industries program, for example, has room for only about 5 percent of the inmates, despite widespread agreement that broader participation would help develop the work ethic in people who most likely will someday be back in society as well as give prison officials another carrot to encourage good behavior.

Some of these recommendations undoubtedly would require more dollars in the short run. But given their promise, and the bleak outlook under current policy, that's an investment in the future that seems worth pursuing.

Charles N. Wheeler III is a correspondent in the Springfield Bureau of the Chicago Sun-Times.

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