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GORDON GARNOS

(5/7/2007)

South Dakotans should not be proud of this statistic

AT ISSUE: Statistics seem to always make the news, but they don't always make interesting reading. Some statistics about South Dakota is good news. Unfortunately, a recent statistic about our state's prison population was both interesting and newsy, if I may use such a word. Oh, why not. It's in the dictionary. South Dakota led the nation for having the fastest growing prison population. Do we have the mentality for just locking up the bad guys? Is there any remedy for this? Another big question is what is this statistic costing the taxpayers of South Dakota?

SEVERAL YEARS AGO then Gov. Bill Janklow and Minnesota's then governor, Rudy Perpish, almost went to war when Perpish made the offhand remark that South Dakota was last in everything.

As the editor then of the Watertown Public Opinion I took that remark and responded daily with a little box in the lower right hand corner on the front page for at least a month with the headline, "Rudy, did you know?" Below that, was a statistic that South Dakota ranked first, second or third in usually the production of agricultural products. People were cutting out these little boxes and sending them, dozens of them, to the then Minnesota governor.

One day a few weeks after I started this project, my phone rang in my office. The voice at the other end asked, "Are you the guy who is printing those 'Rudy, did you know?' boxes?" I had to admit that I was. The voice at the other end said, "Well, this is Rudy." He got the message.

IT WAS AN INTERESTING conversation and I got a good story out of the guy, including the fact that when he graduated from dental school he tried to open a practice in Webster, but couldn't get the financing so he settled in northern Minnesota.

Anyway, are we South Dakotans getting the message about our state leading the nation in the growth of our prison population? It seems we have the mentality of just locking up the bad guys with little or no thought about programs to returning them to society as good, productive citizens, paying their share of taxes, etc.

South Dakota does have programs for these prisoners, like the carpentry classes at the Springfield prison facility. And there are others in both Springfield, Pierre (women's prison) and Sioux Falls. I'm sorry I don't have a recidivism rate (repeated or habitual relapses back into crime) for our prisoners, but it would be interesting to compare that statistic to the rest of the nation as well.

WHEN THE PRISON population statistic was announced, one editorial I read commented, "A true conservative, at least one that is principled in the beliefs of the conservative cause, will be dumbfounded at the size and growth of government expenditures when it comes to prisons in South Dakota. That clash (hard on crime, and enlargement of government/expenditures) is a conundrum for those whose belief is founded on limited government."

As in the editorial, a true liberal would also find fault with this growth as "...one of South Dakota's fastest growing industries."

The original news story announcing our prison growth came from a national study that predicted that by 2011, one out of every 178 persons in this country will be in prison. That is not only shocking but a budget buster for sure.

AS EITHER THE editorial or story pointed out, there is hope in a program being pushed by our attorney general, Larry Long. It is now being tested in several locations around the state on non-dangerous (non-violent) criminals. It is a leg bracelet monitoring system that allows an offender instead of spending his or her time behind bars, it will let them to return home, return to work and return to the other responsibilities that will make them good citizens.

Granted, these people would be primarily druggers and those whose problems came from the bottle. It would help tremendously lowering the number of those who are actually getting stripped sun tans and that should lower the cost of our state's three prisons. Remember, that cost comes from us taxpayers.

Skeptics say the cost of monitoring is too great to be successful. Attorney General Long says "Let's give it a try." Early results, we are told, are good.

BEING NUMBER ONE in the percentage of prison growth is not a statistic for South Dakota I would like to see in another front page box and sent to Minnesota's now governor, Tim Pawlenty.....

Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper.  Garnos, a lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.