Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's 2005-07 budget plan calls for adding intensive addiction treatment units at the Racine Correctional Institution and the Taycheedah Correction Institution for women, to serve a total of 522 men and 120 women annually. The state's early release program also would be expanded to five more prisons; the program allows prisoners to get out of jail early if they complete a six-month residential addiction-treatment program.

The program, which today can handle 280 men and 30 women annually, currently has an 1,200-person waiting list. The $2-million cost would be offset by $2.1 million in savings due to reduced recidivism, state officials predicted.

"I've always thought that the way you reduce the prison population is not to open the back door and let people out," Doyle said. "It's to try to have fewer people coming through the front door."

The plan also calls for increased spending on addiction services for parolees and probationers, expanding opportunities for judges to send offenders to halfway houses, and funding more "day reporting centers" for community-based offenders.

"We're not talking about letting people off," said University of Wisconsin criminal justice professor Ed Latessa. "We're talking about putting people in good, structured programs that can work. What is it about that that's soft on crime? We're going to put our dollars somewhere. We might as well get some return."

Republican legislative leader State Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay) said GOP lawmakers would approach the proposals with an open mind. "I would take a real good, hard look at these and see if we can make them work, because we just can't keep building prisons," said Bies.

Take Action: Require effective treatment and continuing, supervised aftercare programs instead of incarceration for non-violent drug and alcohol offenders.

What You Can Do: Policymakers in the states of California and Maryland have mandated treatment instead of incarceration for non-violent offenders. Ask your legislators to do the same.

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