Editorial: Early release plan for inmates saves money, but be cautious

Washington state Sen. Adam Kline doesn’t make any pretense that he’s pushing the early release of hundreds of prison inmates to save the state money, although it would do that. Kline just believes it’s good policy.

His belief, however, appears to be heavily grounded in speculation.

The Seattle Democrat, a retired attorney who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposes shaving from two to four months off the sentences of most of the state’s 16,000 to 18,000 inmates, based on how likely they are to reoffend. The plan would reduce the average daily population by 3.5 percent, which, at $37,000 a year per prisoner, would save the Department of Corrections more than $14 million over a biennium.

But that’s not what drives Kline, who previously – and wisely – has opposed the simplistic reasoning behind three-strikes sentencing policies. The money spent incarcerating felons would be better spent providing them with treatment and training that would turn them into law-abiding citizens, he says.

Unfortunately, the best response to a simplistic, formulaic problem like three strikes is seldom a simplistic, formulaic solution.

Under Kline’s Senate Bill 5866, half the savings would support the prevention programs, and half would accrue to the state general fund. The $7 million investment in rehabilitation would result in an estimated 3,700 fewer crimes over the next two decades, offsetting by many times the scant 100 added crimes he says could be expected from the early releasees. On balance, a net 3,600 fewer crimes.

Those are sociologists’ predictions, of course, and 20 years from now, who will be in a position to test their accuracy? No one.

Meanwhile, even though murderers and sex offenders are ineligible under his bill, lots of other serious offenders would go free before serving the full sentence applied under the laws they chose to break.

Kline correctly accuses the Legislature of putting needless pressure on prison capacity with each overreaction to a high-publicity, emotion-churning crime. But lawmakers also have ratcheted down the punishment for minor drug offenses, which now account for 9.5 percent of the inmate population, less than half what it was 20 years ago.

Moreover, cash-strapped local police and prosecutors have made minor crimes a lower priority, making the prison-bound population a riskier concentration than it used to be.

Admittedly, Kline is on to something. Offenders amenable to rehabilitative treatment should get it. Inmate populations should be screened to identify nonviolent candidates for early release. But offenders serving time for such crimes as arson and assault should not be eligible. Under SB 5866, they would be.

There’s some merit in the idea of freeing the state’s expensive tenants with a view to the crimes they won’t commit in the future. But we shouldn’t be too quick to forget the crimes they did commit in the past.