Tough on crime: At what cost?

As the two Cheshire suspects make their first appearance in Part A today and as calls for tougher penalties and stricter parole regulations make the rounds, it is important to remind ourselves of the cost that comes with being “tough on crime”. For those who have been around long enough, this smacks of the measures taken by the state in the 80s. The Waterbury Republican-American has this detailed story on the costs involved and the consequences on the state’s budget:

While people still mourn the dead and seethe over crime, there has been little discussion of the costs and consequences of getting tougher on crime and criminals.

Yet, the price tag and the implications are considerable.

“To be sure, every citizen must understand that major changes, whether in longer sentences or more monitoring, comes with a price tag. A big one. Potentially hundreds of millions of tax dollars,” House Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford, said.

In the early 80′s, Connecticut eliminated parole and changed the state’s sentencing structure, going from indeterminate sentences to definite sentences. This led to significant overcrowding and a massive expansion of prisons in Connecticut.

The state legislature adopted new sentencing laws and abolished parole in 1981. By the decade’s end, the prison population had doubled, staffing levels had tripled and the Department of Correction’s budget had quadrupled.

The last major prison expansion in the late 1980s and early 1990s cost $1 billion, and taxpayers are still paying off the state bonds that financed the construction projects.

In the 1990s, the legislature re-instituted parole and embarked on a prison expansion program. Lawmakers also toughened criminal laws. If prison sentences are now made longer, and more inmates serve more time in prison, they have to be housed somewhere. The state now has 19,000 prison beds. “We may have to build more prisons. There is no question about that,” said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

New and expanded prisons will need more staff. The Department of Correction has a workforce of nearly 7,000 and a payroll of more than $400 million today. Prison staffing is also an issue. Overtime cost the department an estimated $10 million more than budgeted for the 2007 fiscal year that ended June 30. Overtime was $61 million for 2006.

The state is spending more than $1.5 billion on prisons this year. This represents 8.7 percent of the $17.5 billion budget for the current fiscal year. “We already spend more money on prisons than we do on colleges in this state,” Lawlor said.

That’s not all. You have to add the costs associated with the death penalty as well:

It costs $66,000 a year to maintain an inmate on death row, according to the legislature’s budget office. The Public Defender Commission spends about $2 million a year to defend death penalty cases, including $800,000 for special public defenders and expert witnesses.

Of course, there’s the cost of the legal system itself: judges, prosecutors, public defenders, courthouses, staff and incarceration.

Today, the average cost of incarceration is $41,600 a year, according to the legislature’s budget office. This figure includes fringe benefits for Department of Correction employees.

Both parties in the legislature are talking about expanding mandatory sentencing and imposing harsher sentences for burglars, repeat offenders and violent criminals. Accused criminals must be prosecuted, defended and judged. Then, there are appeals and habeas corpus petitions.

If sentencing and parole changes are made, additional prosecutors, public defenders and judges may be needed, as well as more clerks, bail commissioners, investigators, victim advocates and so on. The Public Defender Commission employs close to 200 attorneys. There are more than 250 state’s attorneys prosecuting cases in Connecticut courtrooms today, said Mark Dupuis, spokesman for Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane.

Starting salary for public defenders and state’s attorneys is approx. $51k. Superior Court judges make $147k. The state just spent $69million to build a new courthouse.

Shouldn’t we learn from the past and from other states? Connecticut seems to have gotten into a time machine and is preparing to go back 20 years.