Thursday, March 27, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
TWO important pieces of pending state legislation would give District Court judges more flexibility in sentencing offenders.
The Assembly and Senate judiciary committees, in separate actions this week, endorsed bills allowing greater use of boot camps, residential drug-and-alcohol centers and expanding community service as alternatives to prison and jail.
The measures not only make sense in terms of the high cost of incarceration, they afford nonviolent offenders a chance to avoid spending time in overcrowded prisons.
For some time, boot camps have been managed by prison officials as a sensible way to relieve prison overcrowding. This legislation would permit judges to bypass prison evaluation and send the inmates straight to the camps. Their terms there would be a condition of sentencing.
Boot camps would stress hard labor and military discipline, while instructing inmates in preventing domestic violence, parenting and how to obtain employment after their terms are up. Drug and alcohol centers would charge inmates for half the costs involved.
The community service bill would allow judges to impose up to 600 hours of community service for gross misdemeanors. Current law allows only 240 hours of service. Community service can be an attractive alternative for offenders afraid of losing their jobs while in jail. If they have families to support, state costs skyrocket as their dependents go on welfare.
The community benefit could be substantial. There are innumerable areas in Las Vegas in need of paint or sprucing up. It could be argued that no cap should be placed on hours of community service, giving complete discretion to the judges.
It's been argued for years that prisons should confine only the violent and incorrigible, while other alternative punishments should be imposed on the nonviolent offenders.
As penalties are increased on violent crimes, Nevadans will have to accept sentencing alternatives or face the enormous costs of locking up all offenders. A more sensible approach is to divide the two categories, giving the nonviolent a chance to rehabilitate themselves, while protecting society from the truly dangerous.
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