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Editor's Notebook: Politicians could go beyond streamlining the criminal code

Peggy Boyer Long
WUIS/Illinois Issues

Illinois is building another maximum security prison.

This economic development plum will go to Grayville, a tiny town on a bend in the Wabash River at the southeastern edge of the state. And who can blame them for wanting it? Officials say the $140 million project, slated to be completed in early 2005, will generate 300 construction jobs beginning next year. Another 761 workers will be needed to run the place. That's a lot of jobs in a poor region of the state.

In fact, the Grayville prison is only the latest in what has become a cottage industry for down-and-out communities. In just under a quarter century, Illinois has built 21 adult prisons, and politicians show few signs they're ready to pack up their shovels. Why? There's a lot of political capital in appearing to fight crime with bricks and "I've said many times 'before that I'd rather build schools than prisons," Gov. George Ryan said in a printed announcement about the Grayville site. "But if people continue to break the laws of society, then we must be prepared to deal with them.

"And if we must build prisons, then we're going to build them where the jobs and economic development can make a difference."

This statement is disingenuous at best. Leave aside political excuses about school kids, the implied threat of crime, the play to the crowd on the economic benefits of a "lock-em-up"strategy. Examine the statement on its face. The reality is that Illinois is not prepared to deal with those who break the laws of this society. There are too many of them - too many criminals, and perhaps too many criminal laws. 

The numbers tell the story. The Grayville prison will hold 1,800 inmates. Yet that won't begin to uncram inmates who are currently in the system. Ryan wasn't breaking new ground when he said adult prisons remain at more than 160 percent capacity with almost 46,000 prisoners in space designed to hold just lover 28,000. 

Maybe it's time for a new plan. As Aaron Chambers writes, beginning on page 20, politicians have been on punishment streak for the past 30 years. They've created a host of new crimes and tougher penalties. That means longer sentences for more people, many of them nonviolent drug offenders. And it means more taxpayer-funded prisons - at the expense of schools. As politicians revisit the criminal code, they might consider revisiting crime and justice policies, too.

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