I clip coupons. I’m always looking for a quality discount, skipping meager ones and knowing when an offer is really worth nothing.
That’s pretty much what lawmakers had to do this session. With billions of dollars less to spend than hoped, they needed to find the best money-saving deals everywhere in government
They wound up literally walking the aisles of state agencies, searching their shelves of services and catalogs of programs for ones whose elimination would provide big savings without compromising value.
What they chose in the Department of Corrections will significantly change how Washington deals with criminals. Among the decisions:
Separately, each measure seeks to address a nagging problem: housing vouchers may keep paroled inmates from living under bridges; not supervising people convicted of misdemeanors may allow closer watch of the most feared; and the lure of voting may spur civic, not criminal, behavior.
Together, they signify a nice chunk of savings. They also represent a near tectonic shift in thinking as legislators let research rather than emotion guide pursuits of what they hope actually improves rehabilitation and public safety.
As an example, the state went from having no community supervision a quarter-century ago to what the Washington Institute of Public Policy considered too much of it for those individuals unlikely to reoffend and not enough for those who most likely will.
The new law on supervision aims to rebalance the department’s priorities.
“To those who criticize, we did it based on data,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said after signing it.
Prosecutors and law enforcement officers stood behind the governor as she put her signature on Senate Bill 5288. They’ll tell you it’s not foolproof because bad people will do bad things no matter how much research of them is done.
These guys with law degrees and badges will also say it was a better money-saving option than freeing inmates before their sentence ends or closing down a prison, as suggested initially by the Senate.
“We didn’t go into the session trying to figure out how to make communities safer,” said Don Pierce, executive director of the statewide association of sheriffs and police chiefs. “We went in looking for how do we do the least harm.”
The ranking Republican on the House public safety committee said these savings will come at the expense of public safety and to the benefit of criminals.
“I call it ‘The Year of the Felon,’Â ” Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, said with a mouthful of disgust.
“We’re fooling ourselves if we think all of these programs will increase safety in the communities,” he said. “They really don’t have the data. They can say it’s sound science. They’ll say whatever in order to keep socializing criminal justice.”
As politicians continue debating the decisions, corrections secretary Eldon Vail is working to carry them out. By his count, the supervision law alone contains 29 different new assignments to be done before those millions in lower costs are realized.
It’s tough work but it’s the right work, in his professional opinion.
“The Legislature did a really good job to pay attention to the research,” he said. “We’re moving from just being angry at offenders to being smart on crime.”
Time will tell if it’s a good value or not.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. He can be heard at 8:15 a.m. Mondays on “The Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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