Alternative to incarceration

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | 2:11 a.m.

As the Nevada Legislature struggles to resolve a massive budget deficit that threatens education, health care and other essential state services, it would be foolhardy for lawmakers to ignore ways to reduce the high cost of incarcerating certain criminals.

As the Las Vegas Sun reported last year, Nevada historically has ranked high nationally in incarceration rates but low in the use of alternative sentencing for low-risk offenders, including those who are imprisoned primarily for reasons of substance abuse. It can be a big waste of money to imprison a nonviolent offender at a cost of more than $20,000 annually when a more reasonable alternative may be available at a fraction of the cost.

One reasonable alternative is contained in Senate Bill 398, which is being considered by the Senate Finance Committee.

A focus of SB398 is individuals who violate probation. The court still would have the option to send those offenders to prison, but judges could also place them in substance abuse treatment programs run in prisons by the state Health and Human Services Department. The participants would be separated from the prison inmates.

The participants also would have to pay for their own treatment and supervision to the best of their ability. If they successfully complete treatment, the court could release them or require them to complete probation. Otherwise, the offenders could wind up in prison.

Committee members learned from Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, that SB398, which requires no new beds, could save Nevada more than $34 million over the next five years. Bernie Curtis, chief of the state Parole and Probation Division, also spoke in favor of the bill during Monday’s committee hearing.

Successfully delivering substance abuse treatment to certain offenders and returning them to society, where they have a chance to become productive citizens, makes far more sense than spending the money to lock them up. That’s why the Legislature should give the program contained in SB398 a chance to succeed.