The growing cost of our corrections system is high on the list of challenges Vermont must face up to. Consider these facts:

٠ Fifteen years ago Vermont's Corrections budget made up 4% of our state budget. Now it is 10%.
٠ Fifteen years ago, for every dollar we spent on corrections, we spent just shy of two dollars on higher education. Now, for each dollar we spend on Corrections, higher education gets 75 cents.
٠ In 2006 almost 14,000 Vermonters were under the supervision of the Department of Corrections, up from about 3,000 in 1975.
٠ The number of women incarcerated in Vermont prisons has increased by 25% since 2000; it's grown by 600% in the last ten years.
٠ The majority of those incarcerated do not have high school diplomas, and a large percentage is addicted to drugs or alcohol.
٠ It costs over $41,600 to incarcerate an inmate in Vermont.

This is an unsustainable path. "Bending the curve" is not enough; we must reverse the trends. Last biennium the legislature invested in alternatives to incarceration by expanding the testing of electronic bracelets, so that we can monitor offenders who are returned to the community. We supported a work camp so that offenders behind bars can learn job skills and also learn to take responsibility and follow a schedule. We also created new transitional housing to help ensure that once offenders leave the prisons, they won't return.

Clearly, there's more to do. I have asked the Judiciary and Institutions Committees of the Vermont House to jointly address this challenge this biennium. This week they heard about progress Connecticut and other states have made to reduce prison populations. I am proposing to Governor Douglas and the Senate that Vermont work with the Council on State Governments to establish a comprehensive plan that aims to both decrease crime rates and reduce the number of inmates behind bars.

A coherent plan would involve those who represent victims, judges, prosecutors, advocacy groups, and prison experts. And we need to fund programs that will prevent crimes from being committed in the first place by giving at-risk Vermonters support, such as early childhood education, programming for children in the custody of the state, and programs that end drug and alcohol addiction.
Our Corrections system should focus on punishing but also rehabilitating prisoners, using alternatives to the costly incarceration of nonviolent, non-repeat offenders, and creating opportunities for former prisoners as they transition back to society. I believe that prisons are needed for violent, repeat offenders; incarcerating them helps their rehabilitation, their victims, and society. But I also believe that spending millions of taxpayer dollars to imprison non-violent, non-repeat offenders often doesn't benefit society or make it safer; rather, it often causes harm. And, we can't afford it. And, even more so, the generations that follow us cannot afford this path.
I welcome your comments and questions about this or other issues related to state government. You can reach me at 899 3324 or gsym@together.net.