Costs of proposed criminal justice reforms staggering
The most interesting thing to come out of yesterday’s hearing (thus far) is the cost reporting of the Office of Fiscal Analysis and the costs are quite steep. For example, the cost of adopting a “three strikes” law [pdf] would be $100 million five years from now. This includes the cost of additional state’s attorneys and public defenders, besides the cost of incarceration.
Perhaps instead of building a new prison, the State might just want to re-open the North Block [pdf] at Cheshire CI. Cost of doing that? $10.5 million for this next year.
How about just making burglaries violent offenses [pdf] and therefore ineligible for parole until service of 85% of the sentence? $1.3 million after six months, $4.7 million after one year and a measly $57.0 million after five years.
Not good enough? What if we do away with parole entirely, as some have suggested? Just annual costs of $134 million and an additional $332 million – $527 million for construction costs. Good thing we have that massive surplus, eh? 
I think this just highlights the need to slow down and take measured steps, doing only what is necessary and not what sounds good.
The rest of the documents submitted yesterday can be found here. The testimonies should be available shortly, as well.
Of course, that doesn’t take into consideration the considerable savings (in insurance costs, prevented property damage, medical costs etc.) that we get when we lock up criminals. This may sound trite, but criminals commit crime. People who rob old ladies tend not to do such things just once. People who break into houses typically do them more than ones.
The bottom line is that repeat home invaders need to be locked up for a very very long time. Violent criminals, especially repeat ones, need to be locked up for a very very long time.
That’s the categorical imperative.
And these are the costs of doing so. The taxpayers of CT certainly have the right to know how much they will have to spend. There has to be a cost-benefit analysis in the end.