Talking Re-entry (or The Turd in the Punchbowl, Part 2)

Governor McDonnell delivered his “State of the Commonwealth” speech last week to both Houses of the Virginia General Assembly.  As with any political speech, the Governor lacked specifics and spent the vast majority of his words on applauding his own efforts to solve the problems of the Commonwealth, problems that coincidentally haven’t lessoned on his watch.

I dare say, a higher percentage of residents inside our “learning community” watched the Governor’s address than the law-abiding, taxpaying residents outside the wire.  Maybe it’s because we know that just a few words during the speech could make all the difference for the vast majority of us living inside here.  Will he mention earned good time, early release or even – dare I say it – parole?  We watched. 

So we listened, listened as he calls on the delegates to strengthen the Virginia Retirement System, without mentioning his own hand in increasing the funding deficit.  We listen as he calls for more funding for schools and slowing the growth of tuition increases in state colleges and universities all the while knowing he’s willing to continue supporting a prison system that saps over $1 billion annually to hold 40,000 inmates, the majority of whom are nonviolent and low custody offenders, and continues to support and encourage a prison industry system which overcharges state schools and agencies for their products.

We wait and we listen, listen for mention of “corrections”.  And then it comes and we all see the turd in the punchbowl yet again.  Not one word about the absolutely criminal state of Virginia’s prisons.  Not one word about the abysmal 400% growth in inmate population in the last fifteen years or even higher spending increase given DOC over the same fifteen year period so that today one of every eight general fund dollars, $1,133,000,000 in 2013, will be spent on the state’s largest bureaucracy:  DOC and its 13,000 plus employees.

No, instead he said money must be given to cover the expenses necessary to help offenders “re-enter society”.  After all, he noted, “over ninety percent of the incarcerated will be released…”  Throw in a few fibs:  “our program is working.  Crime rates and recidivism are down…” and Governor McDonnell moved on to his next “great” initiative.  And the guys in the building?  They just sat there wondering how anyone with a lick of sense can keep buying the same b.s.

Here’s what the Governor didn’t tell you:  every state is facing a significant financial crisis.  The world economy is in trouble.  The US deficit is now the size of the total economy – meaning cuts must be made.  Friends, we aren’t Greece, not yet anyway.  But we’re headed that way.  There’s less money and state government must get smart with its spending.  Keeping 40,000 men and women locked up is neither smart, nor economically sustainable.  That’s the turd in the punchbowl.  So far, no politician has come forward with the guts to admit it.

As mentioned above, Virginia isn’t alone.  A few weeks ago Kentucky released 1,000 inmates.  Last year Kentucky (and six other states) revamped its sentencing laws to utilize alternatives to prison for most non-violent felons.  And then there’s Oregon.

Oregon is facing a $3.5 billion shortfall in their 2011-13 biennial budgets.  The former Governor (the current Governor also signed on) issued an executive order to re-evaluate “who is sent to prison and for how long”. 

Oregon had to face the realities of a “tough on crime”, versus “smart on crime” approach to incarceration.  Compare their numbers to the abysmal results in Virginia:

-        Since 1987 Oregon DOC expenditures increased 209%.

-        Oregon DOC’s two year budget is $1.36 billion.

-        Oregon’s DOC spending accounts for 53% of its public safety spending and one out of every ten general fund dollars.

-        In the last 20 years, Oregon has doubled the number behind bars, even while the crime rate went down.  Why?  Because of increased sentence length and decreased good time earning.

And to think, Virginia’s numbers are even worse.

But Oregon’s Governor has political courage.  He asked the voters of the state “Have we more than doubled our investment in students over the same period?  Not even close.”  He went on:  “Our long term goal is to invest in people not prisons…”  He vowed to spend resources in a way that keeps dangerous people locked up.  But then said this:

“We have a real dichotomy…locking up more people versus providing our children with a better education.  There is a great imbalance between how we invest in incarceration and how we invest in education…It’s not fair.  And, most of all, it’s not smart.”

And what has Oregon’s experiment with a creative early release program that rewards inmates who actively work to better themselves shown?  As the outgoing Governor noted “reduced prison sentences or alternatives to incarceration are likely to produce the greatest potential public safety cost savings.”

Powerful words, courageous words, words Governor McDonnell should have used in his state of the Commonwealth address.  See, there are politicians who are willing to do the tough work and speak the truth.  Virginia, it appears, isn’t fortunate to have that kind of politician.

Ironically, Bob McDonnell has based his entire criminal justice program on offender re-entry.  The problem is, “imprisonment significantly reduces the ability of ex-offenders to find jobs, costing the US economy an estimated $57 to $65 billion annually in lost economic output.”  That was the finding of a November 2010 Center for Policy Research study.  Re-entry programs aren’t the answer; sending less people to prison is.

And that is the turd in Governor McDonnell’s plans for DOC.  Its high time he or some other Virginia politician – clean up the bowl.