Time is now to be ‘smart on crime’

We are using our Editorial space today to call attention to a Spectrum piece by Sen. Johnny Ellis printed on page 11 in this edition.

Ellis continues a drumbeat begun in our pages last month after the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness' Housing Summit Dec. 13.

The summit was divided into tracks and focused on "Success with and for Unaccompanied Youth in Housing," "Rapid Re-Housing, Closing the gaps quickly for families and individuals" and "Building a Strategic Prisoner Re-entry Plan for Housing."

It concerned us then that most people there were not attending the sessions targeting prisoner re-entry.

Surely Sen. Ellis saw the same 100-plus page plan prepared by the Department of Corrections' Carmen Gutierrez. She's the deputy commissioner for Rehabilitation and Reentry and has put together a five-year plan to put in place new and more effective strategies to reduce recidivism and make communities safer.

The plan's executive summary lauds it as the first of its kind and the culmination of work by the Alaska Prisoner Reentry Task Force, created by the Criminal Justice Work Group in February 2010 and endorsed by Gov. Sean Parnell.

The Alaska Department of Corrections reports that 66 percent of all criminals go back to prison after release, but only a small percentage return because of new crimes. Most return for violations of their probation or parole, and substance abuse is the overwhelming cause of those violations.

The plan takes aim at saving taxpayers' money by changing these numbers and reducing the number of men and women who do return to custody.

We think this issue is of vital importance in our community. A new 1,536-bed, $250 million prison is set to open this spring, and it will release hundreds of inmates each year back into our community with no jobs, no housing and felony records.

Even without the Goose Creek Correctional Center facility open, Amy Abbott, who heads the Palmer Probation Office, said at the Dec. 18 meeting that the state's Department of Corrections releases 30 to 50 felons from prison monthly and drops them off in the Valley. Opening Goose Creek will amplify those numbers.

People released from prison face many challenges when re-entering society, according to Bill Aube, with Daybreak, a local organization that deals with prisoner re-entry. He said a lack of stable housing often derails other efforts to help people re-adjust to life out of custody.

Gutierrez said the Department of Corrections recognizes that housing plays a significant role in recidivism.

"Reducing recidivism, and how do we as a community of Alaskans promote re-entry into our society, is really, truly one of the most exciting issues," she said.

On Page 11 today, Sen. Ellis talks about the Smart Justice Summit he organized in October and eight words he thinks can reduce crime and incarceration costs: "Don't build new prisons, they cost too much."

He lists nine smart-on-crime strategies that Texas has deployed to reduce incarceration costs and recidivism that he says have saved the state $200 million.

We think it's time Alaska followed suit and adopted similar "smart-on-crime" strategies.