Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde ValleySedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley
    Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley
    • Home
    • Sedona News
    • Business Profiles
    • Opinion
    • Mind & Body
    • Arts
    • Elections
    • Gift Shop
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde ValleySedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley
    Home » Sentencing Reform: A Solution in Search of a Problem
    Editorials/Opinion

    Sentencing Reform: A Solution in Search of a Problem

    January 5, 2012No Comments
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Email Reddit WhatsApp
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email Reddit WhatsApp

    Healing Paws

    By Sheila Polk, Yavapai County Attorney, and
    Chair of Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council

    Verde Valley AZ (January 5, 2012) – A New Year’s prediction: some in the legislature will try to rebrand an old idea. What bombed before as “sentencing reform” will make an attempted comeback this session as “prison reform.” Underneath the new label is the same ill-conceived scheme that failed the last time it was proposed. It goes something like this: release non-violent inmates from our overcrowded prisons and the state will save bundles of money.

    Arizona lawmakers have wisely shot down this idea in the past. Thanks to an extensive research study released today, they will be well armed to do so again. Prisoners in Arizona: Truth-in-Sentencing, Time Served and Recidivism offers the most detailed, data-driven analysis to date of who goes to prison in Arizona, who does not, and why. Commissioned by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council, the study provides what has been missing thus far in the policy discussion about Arizona’s criminal justice system: facts.

    Sedona Gift Shop

    Among the report’s key findings:

    • Crime is down in Arizona at double the rate for the U.S. as a whole. From 2002 – 2010, Arizona’s crime rate fell by 38.5%, compared to a national decline of 18.9%. While there is vigorous debate on the precise causes of this trend, Arizona can certainly point to the effectiveness of current sentencing laws in removing from society the most dangerous criminals and those most likely to reoffend, as well as the success of juvenile and adult diversion programs which prevent first and second time offenders from becoming career criminals. Both factors are well documented in the study.
    • Arizona’s inmate population has become increasingly violent. Just over 95% of the people in prison are violent and/or repeat felony offenders, a slight increase from 2010. These are exactly the types of people we want to isolate from the rest of our community because of their proven propensity to harm others. According to the report, the incarceration of this criminal element – what criminologists call “incapacitation” – has prevented more than a million additional crimes since 1994 and is also certainly one reason Arizona has seen a greater drop in crime than the nation as a whole.
    • Arizona’s prisons are not filled with non-violent, first time drug offenders. Currently, less than 5% of the total inmate population is made up of non-violent first offenders – and most of these inmates are actually repeat offenders who pled down their sentences. Indeed, for the vast majority of low-level first and second offenders, prison is not even an option. With the documented success of diversion programs, substance abuse treatment, probation and other prison alternatives, only the most dedicated and dangerous criminals are eligible for lodging at the “big house.”
    • Arizona’s prison population is not exploding.Recent discussion of a private contract for additional prison beds has created the widespread misperception that we are sending more and more people to prison. In fact, for the first time ever, Arizona’s inmate population is on a steady, downward trend that began in late 2009. In each of the last six months, the Department of Corrections has actually seen a net outflow of inmates. (Plans for the additional beds have been shelved.)
    • Tough sentences reduce crime. In 1994, Arizona joined a national wave in enacting Truth-in-Sentencing (TIS) laws to ensure that convicted criminals serve at least 85% of their sentence.  After analyzing subsequent crime trends, the study concludes that keeping the most dangerous offenders behind bars for a longer period of time led to a 17.7% drop in reported crime over the next fifteen years, saving our criminal justice system and society at large hundreds of millions of dollars. And while some have argued that TIS has led to unduly harsh sentences, the data show that TIS inmates, rather than facing decades-long differences in sentences, are spending 10.7% more time behind bars than pre-TIS inmates.

    Perhaps the most important conclusion one can draw from the Prisoners in Arizona study is that Arizona does not need to look to other states for guidance on how to reform its sentencing laws and incarceration system. Rather, other states would do well to look at Arizona, where reforms undertaken over the last twenty years have resulted in greater public safety at a cost the public can afford.

    Sheila Polk Yavapai County Yavapai County Attorney

    Comments are closed.


    City Council Weighs ATV Ban Ordinance Proposal
    By Tommy Acosta
    The Sedona City Council at its May 23, 2023 meeting took no action on a proposed ordinance that would ban all off-road vehicles from being driven on state-owned public roads or streets owned by the city. The ordinance, spearheaded by Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow on the premise that such vehicles pose a risk to the health, safety and welfare of the community, would impose heavy fines to anyone driving the ATVs or OHVs on city streets, including S.R. 179 and S.R. 89A. ATV rental companies have admitted that such vehicles are not intended or designed to be driven on paved roads, yet, in Arizona, they are allowed to do so under Arizona Revised Statute 28-1174 (4B). Opponents against the ordinance argued at the meeting that if adopted the ban would cripple the ATV rental industry in Sedona and cause much hardship to the owners and employees, as it would effectively, as written, destroy their livelihood. Read more→
    Recent Comments
    • JB on DORR Hosts Talk on Gun Violence Prevention
    • Mary on No Legal Traction on OHVs
    • Michael Schroeder on DORR Hosts Talk on Gun Violence Prevention
    • JB on Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow talks OHV Ordinance
    • JB on City Council Weighs ATV Ban Ordinance Proposal
    Categories
    © 2023 All rights reserved. Sedona.biz.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.