Social costs not included in bill of sale

We’re for jobs — the kind of jobs that pay a living wage, include health insurance and provide a level of security for Valley families.

But some jobs that pay this sort of livable wage are associated with industries that come yoked with direct social costs to the communities where they are located. Here in the Mat-Su we can think of a couple of examples of the sort of jobs that offers benefits to our community, but at a cost as well. And sometimes a good plan can mitigate those costs.

The prison industry is on our mind today. Did you know four Department of Corrections prisons in the Mat-Su Borough hold nearly one-third of the state’s 6,000 prisoners?

We know folks who work at the new Goose Creek Correctional Facility. These are people making good money with good benefits and we find no fault with that.

But there is another side to this ledger: What are the social costs to the Valley as a direct result of this new prison?

Bill Aube says no one really knows the answer because that research has never been done.

“What the borough or local city governments didn’t do is plan for any of this,” he said. “The first thing we should have done, but didn’t, is we should have had a plan in place before we ever built a prison.”

Aube is part of the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness’s Prisoner Re-entry Taskforce, which has organized a forum from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Oct. 24 at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center to seek ways to help the 50 or more people each month released from local prisons transition back into Valley life.

In Alaska, the rate of recidivism — how often prisoners re-offend — is 48 percent within the first year of release, and 66 percent after three years, according to a November 2011 report by the Alaska Judicial Council titled “Criminal Recidivism in Alaska, 2008 and 2009.”

Aube said that rate of re-incarceration is not sustainable. For example, although Goose Creek only became fully operational this year, by 2016 the state will need to build another prison, he said.

But other states like Michigan and Texas are using new approaches to crime and punishment that also are saving money, Aube said. He said Michigan has reduced its recidivism by more than a third in the past few years.

After a Joint Judiciary Committee meeting in July, Rep. Wes Keller said he planned to introduce Senate Bill 64 in the Legislature next session, which would create a Sentencing Committee to examine the data from various programs in place now to help deter criminals.

We hope Keller and the other members of our Valley legislative delegation will be there Thursday and advocate in the Legislature for meaningful change in the way Alaska handles crime and punishment. We think it’s time for a shift from strict punishments to one that addresses crimes’ root causes, like drug and alcohol addiction and mental health issues.

This is also a reminder of the value of planning. Rather than blindly cheering the nearly 260 good jobs Goose Creek added to the Valley, we see a need for a thoughtful review of the costs and benefits offered by any industry seeking to locate here.

Now we face a crossroads where nearly a third of the state’s prisoners already live in the Valley and we have no plan of action for how we will preserve our quality of life from the social costs included in that bill of sale.