What's The Alternative?

With prison populations -- and prison costs -- inexorably rising, states are experimenting with ways to punish criminals without punishing taxpayers. As alternatives to high-cost imprisonment, at least 40 states now offer "intermediate sanctions." Most are forms of closely supervised probation available only to nonviolent offenders. Some allow probationers to hold jobs while they serve time in dormitory-style halfway houses where they are subject to tight curfews and periodic drug and alcohol tests. Others keep tabs on them at home through frequent visits from probation officers or through electronic ! shackles that signal authorities when the wearer attempts to go out.

The attraction of alternatives is obvious. It costs $6 billion each year just to house the nation's inmate population, an amount that would pay for 250,000 residential drug-treatment slots. "It's time for a radical restructuring of priorities in our penal system," says New York Congressman Charles Rangel, who is sponsoring a bill that would provide $800 million to support alternative programs for drug offenders.

But the high hopes once held for such programs have been tempered. In many cases they merely apply closer supervision to nonviolent offenders who would be on conventional probation anyway; prisons have long reserved most of their cell space for violent criminals. The alternatives can be expensive. New Mexico spent nearly $100,000 for its first two dozen electronic shackles, which frequently transmitted false alarms or, worse, failed to signal when an offender had sneaked out the door. In Oklahoma a Justice Department study found that offenders sent to so-called boot camps -- military-style detention camps, complete with harsh drills -- were more likely to land back in jail than ex-cons who served time in regular prisons.

The most promising efforts involve juvenile offenders before they get into the prison system. In a successful Massachusetts program, a social worker may devote from 10 to 50 hours each week to a single youthful offender, offering counsel and guidance through government bureaucracies. Such programs require time, dedication and money. But with prisons bursting at the seams, there may be no alternative.