NEW YORK — Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will probably remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision.
Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up to one of the biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into place cost-saving reforms that have struggled to win political support in the tough-on-crime climate of recent decades.
“Many political leaders who weren’t comfortable enough, politically, to do it before can now — under the guise of fiscal responsibility — implement programs and policies that would be win-win situations, saving money and improving corrections,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration.
In California, faced with a projected $42 billion deficit and prison overcrowding that has triggered a federal lawsuit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to eliminate parole for all offenders not convicted of violent or sex-related crimes, reducing the parole population by about 70,000.
Other states looking at making changes are Kentucky, Virginia, Michigan and New York.
“There’s a new openness to taking a look,” said Michigan state Sen. Alan Cropsey, a Republican who in the past has questioned some prison-reform proposals. “What we’ll see are changes being made that will have a positive impact four, five, six years down the road.”
Even before the recent financial meltdown, policymakers in most states were wrestling with ways to contain corrections costs. The Pew Center’s Public Safety Performance Project has projected that state and federal prison populations — under current policies — will grow by more than 190,000 by 2011, to about 1.7 million, at a cost to the states of $27.5 billion.
Safety remains a potent factor. In California, for example, the state correctional officers union contends Schwarzenegger’s proposals will fuel more crime.
Thomas Sneddon, a former Santa Barbara, Calif., prosecutor who is now executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, said he and his colleagues support reappraisals of corrections policies yet worry constantly that dangerous criminals will be released unwisely.
“I don’t think the public at large has any idea of who’s in these prisons,” Sneddon said. “If they went and visited, they’d say, ‘My God, don’t let any of these people out.’ “
