Prison Moratorium Coalition-Talking Points SB 177

[<cdonner2@juno.com>]

PRISON MORATORIUM COALITION
KEY TALKING POINTS ON SB 177

On General Topic of Incarceration in Colorado:   

The United States has the highest per capita incarceration rate of any
country in the world, fueled primarily by the ill-conceived "War on Drugs". 
The current approach to the "War on Drugs" greatly emphasizes law
enforcement and incarceration over treatment or prevention efforts. By all
measures, this approach has failed to solve the problem of drug addiction
and drug-related crime. Communities deserve real solutions to real
problems-not the simplistic, politically expedient, unjust, and extremely
expensive incarceration policies we have today. The overuse of incarceration
is unnecessarily devastating families, draining money away from community
necessities (like education) and threatening the long-term safety and
stability of our communities.

Prison expansion has proven to be a vicious cycle.  As soon as a new prison
opens, it fills quickly.  With more beds for prisoners, more are
incarcerated, leading to the need for more prisons. The Prison Moratorium
Coalition wants to stop that cycle and find real, long-term solutions for
underlying causes of crime and community instability.

FACTS
	
Unprecedented growth in the prison population. In 1985, there were 3,637
adults in prison in Colorado.  Today that number is over 16,000 and is
projected to increase another 49.5% to 24,500 by January 2007.    Last year
70% of men and 80% of women sent to prison were convicted of a nonviolent
offense.

Cost of prioritizing incarceration.  In 1987, the prison budget was $80
million.  This year, the Department of Corrections has submitted a $642.9
million budget request which includes $88 million for new prison
construction.  It costs an average of $30,000 per year to incarcerate
someone and $75,000 to build each prison cell.

Incarceration of drug offenders.  Over the past decade, the number of people
sent to prison in Colorado for drug offenses has increased 476%, making drug
offenders the fastest growing and largest category of felon in prison.  In
1999, one-in-three women and one-in-four men sent to prison were convicted
of a drug offense.

The race to incarcerate disproportionately affects people of color.   In
Colorado, the incarceration rate of African-Americans is ten times that of
Anglos and the incarceration rate of Latinos/as is four times that of
Anglos.

Declining parole release rates are fueling the need for prison expansion. 
Currently, over 8,000 (49%) of people in prison are eligible but have been
denied parole.  Of those released, over 40% were returned to prison for
"technical" violations (non new felony).  The most prevalent technical
violation is repeated drug use.  

Other states have developed drug policy reform & alternative approaches to
drug use/addiction 
· Arizona and California revamped drug policy through ballot initiatives to
focus on treatment for first and second time drug offenders rather than
incarceration.
· New Mexico, New York, and Idaho all have legislative drug reform packages
initiated by their Republican Governors.  Governor Kempthorne in Idaho has
said, ".if simply warehousing people is our solution, then we as a society
have failed."    Governor Pataki has pledge to make drug policy reform a
priorty of his administration.  

Talking Points on Specific Provisions of SB 177:

(1) Repealing Mandatory Minimum Sentencing for drug offenses.
· Mandatory sentencing removes the traditional role of the judge which is to
evaluate all the circumstances in a case in imposing sentence.    
· There has never been any proof that mandatory sentencing deters illegal
drug activity in the community.  In fact, a RAND study proved that mandatory
sentencing is one of the most expensive and least effective strategies in
the drug war.  The RAND study found that the most effective and
cost-efficient approach to reducing drug use/addiction and drug trafficking
is treatment for addiction.
· Mandatory sentencing often results in unfair sentences as a totality of
circumstances cannot be taken into consideration.  

(2) Changing Habitual Offender Laws.
· A RAND study found that "three-strikes" sentencing schemes were extremely
expensive because of the cost of incarcerating someone for a very long
prison term and were one of the least effective strategies in combating or
deterring crime.

(3) Two year moratorium on funding for prison expansion
· Prison expansion is a vicious cycle.  If you build them-you will fill
them.  The only way to generate sufficient pressure to spark policy change
is if building prisons is no longer the premier option.  
· We must end the heavy reliance on incarceration as a strategy of the "War
on Drugs".  Drug and alcohol addiction should be fundamentally viewed as
health issues, not crime issues.  Alternatives to incarceration and
treatment are a more effective, cost-efficient, and humane response but are
currently under  funded and underutilized.
· Public safety will not be jeopardized if prison expansion is halted. 
There are currently over 1,000 empty prison beds in private prisons and over
8,000 people in prison who are past their parole eligibility dates but are
still incarcerated.

(4) Ban on any new private prisons and no renewal of existing contracts.  
· The management and operation of a prison involves functions that are
inherently governmental because the incarceration requires the state to
exercise its powers over individuals which is distinguishable from
privatization in other areas of government.
· Private prisons are a failed experiment.  Once the profit motive is
introduced to prison operations, problems arise as private prison operators
prioritize profits rather than public and prisoner safety and prisoner
rehabilitation. Put simply, for profit private prisons, jails and detention
centers have no place in a democratic society.  Profiteering from the
imprisonment of human beings is unethical, compromises public safety and
corrupts justice.
· There have been many problems at the for-profit prisons in Colorado
(including riots, guards being indicted for abusing prisoners, staffing
shortages, inadequate training/supervision of staff, high staff turnover
rates) which demonstrates that these corporations are not suited for running
a prison.
· The national General Assembly of the United Methodist Church, the national
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the National Black Caucus of
State Legislators have each issued resolutions opposing the privatization of
prisons and jails because of the perverse economic incentive to profit from
and expand the number of people in prison.

(5) Drug Policy Task Force
· Like many states around the country are doing or have done, Colorado needs
to analyze current drug policy in order to design the most comprehensive,
cost-efficient, and effective drug policy.  
· The task force in SB 177 is critical if we are to develop sound,
effective, humane criminal justice policy that meets the needs of the
community and the individual.  Last year, this task force was given the
highest prioritization by Legislative Council before being defeated in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.

(6) Prohibit the transfer of Colorado prisoners to out-of-state facilities
and prohibit the housing of out-of-state prisoners in Colorado private
prisons.
· Several states prohibit private prisons from importing prisoners from
out-of-state as a matter of public safety.  Colorado should do the same. 
Similarly, prisoners from Colorado should not be shipped out of state unless
such transfer is voluntary due to the disruption to family life from
involuntary transfers.

(7)  Council on Corrections.
· A Council on Corrections would provide greater public accountability of
the Department of Corrections to ensure that prisoners are treated humanely
and provide assistance to the Department of Corrections in order to develop
the best prison policies possible.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: An extensive Information Packet on incarceration in
Colorado can be found on the Prison Moratorium Coalition's  website:
www.prison-moratorium.org or contact Christie Donner, Rocky Mountain Peace &
Justice Center (303) 444-6981, cdonner2@juno.com if you'd like one mailed 


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