Correction Policies Need Revisiting
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has impressed most observers with his willingness to take on the tough issues.  With an early victory seldom seen in the tradition-bound halls of the United States Senate, Senator Webb got a modern day version of the GI Bill passed that will ensure that returning veterans have access to educational benefits.  Now he has taken on an issue that may be more complex and is certainly very controversial:  prison reform.  Webb directed national attention to the issue with a Sunday Parade magazine article, "Why We Must Fix Our Prisons" (March 29, 2009, www.parade.com).
 
        In his usual direct style, Senator Webb states the problem as he sees it, "America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace.  Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness.  Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous."
 
        Statistics cited by Webb and substantiated by an independent study by The Pew Center on the States, One in 31:  The Long Reach of American Corrections (March 2009, www.pewcenteronthestates.org), indicate that one out of every 31 adults in the U.S. is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release.  In Virginia the number is one in 46.  The United States has five percent of the world's population but nearly 25 percent of the world's reported prisoners.  Our national rate of incarceration of 756 inmates per 100,000 residents is five times the average worldwide rate of 158 per 100,000 population.
 
        The Pew Center study found that corrections is the fastest expanding major segment of state budgets, and its growth as a share of state expenditures over the past two decades has been second only to Medicaid.  The average daily cost to keep a person in prison is $78.95.
 
        The issue is one that is ripe for political demagoguery.  Governor Kaine's proposal to save millions of dollars in a tight budget by releasing nonviolent offenders 90 days early was rejected by the House of Delegates.  Attitudes may be changing because of the seriousness of the problem.  The Pew Report quotes Newt Gingrich as saying that "we have to fundamentally rethink prisons."  The Pew Report cites some states that are looking at alternatives and rethinking old policies, but Virginia is not among them.  Senator Webb wants to create a national commission to look at every aspect of our criminal justice system.  His proposal is worthy of support in the Congress and among the citizens of this country.  The Commonwealth of Virginia needs a commission to examine its policies as well.