newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN

COMMENTARY

What could you do with $48,000?

You could, among other things, buy a 2009 Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle.

Now, let's say that new SUV kept breaking down, and each time you towed it to the mechanic, it cost you $48,000 to fix. Despite that, you readily paid the bill over and over again.

Would that make sense? Of course not.

It would be illogical, wasteful and reckless. No one in their right mind would support such irresponsible spending, yet unfortunately, that's what New Jersey taxpayers do every year — over and over again — when it comes to our prisons.

About 14,000 inmates are annually released from New Jersey correctional facilities, with 65 percent of adults re-arrested within five years. Taxpayers pay about $48,000 per year per inmate.

The idea that we would willingly continue to fork over $48,000 in taxpayer money per year for every inmate and find that acceptable is hard to comprehend. This waste cannot continue, and as we look to save money, stopping it is the moral and smart thing to do.

That's why I held hearings throughout the state to hear from as many people as possible on the failings of our prison system, and that's why I was joined by five of my colleagues in introducing a six-bill package to reform how prisons handle inmates, with the goal being to cut recidivism and save lives and taxpayer money.

Many of our laws deal with meting out harsh penalties for lawbreakers, and we spend enormous sums of money to ensure criminals in New Jersey pay their debt. Yet, we have created a system that doesn't just punish criminals. It punishes taxpayers too.

We've already pushed forward a law to give judges more discretion in some drug cases prosecuted through the Drug-Free School Zone law. That law's mandatory minimum sentences have given New Jersey this dubious distinction: 35 percent of all inmates are nonviolent drug offenders, the highest percentage in the nation.

It makes more sense to keep these nonviolent offenders out of prison in the first place, sending them instead into drug treatment. This is not to say that these individuals do not deserve to be punished, but incarcerating individuals over and over again is not the answer.

Many families and communities are struggling with the devastating effects of incarceration, including children coping with the absence of parents and young people returning from prison without education and job training skills.

These problems all cost money to address.

If we are serious about reducing crime and reforming the portions of our corrections system that just don't work — and saving taxpayers money — then we need to look at re-entry services.

We spend over $1.2 billion — 4.2 percent of our total state budget — on our Department of Corrections. We also spend more than $300 million to keep our nonviolent drug offenders behind bars. That's more than 16 states spend on their entire corrections systems.

I am confident that, after almost a year of exhaustive research, we have put together a legislative package that will create a system that better serves our communities and those who have paid their debts to society.

The legislation would require the state to create mandatory workforce-skills training and a mandatory education program in each state correctional facility, with inmates required to attain a high school equivalency certificate or high school diploma.

It would also eliminate inmate phone surcharges that are simply bad policy and make it difficult for inmates to maintain family and community ties.

I estimate the package would cost about $12 million per year, but an analysis by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services shows cutting New Jersey's recidivism rate by 5 percent would save taxpayers as much as $13.44 million in just two years.

Some have called this legislation reckless, or deliberately mischaracterized it. Some have enjoyed humoring themselves with rants defending the status quo of wasted taxpayer money and wasted lives. But these reforms would be among the smartest moves we could make to save taxpayer dollars.

Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) is the Assembly majority leader and represents the 15th Legislative District.