Sentence to Serve
While the State faces the daunting task of cutting over $900 million from the budget this year and who knows how many billions next year, it would seem easy to look over the State’s allocations and start whacking away. Believe me, it’s not that easy.
Let’s look at one particular item, buried deep in the Judiciary budget: the Sentence to Serve Program, just one of the items on the Governor’s chopping block. This program takes prisoners out of the local jails and allows them to “work off” part of their jail time, as well as other direct costs. The city of LeCenter has used the Sentence to Serve program several times. The prisoners there helped paint the city owned swimming pool, cleaned up debris along Highway 99, helped with brush chipping, worked at the city/county recycling center, painted city buildings, and picked up trash at the local parks. These probationers work hard. They finish their work with a real sense of accomplishment. Today a city council woman from Waterville shared a story with me of a recently released prisoner who asked her for directions to the local park he had worked on a few years ago. He was proud of the work he had done and was eager to revisit the fruits of his labor.
These tangible benefits are totally lost in the monetary considerations of a budget crisis. It is so important that we as a State take a holistic and systematic view of the costs and benefits of any program. There is so much at stake.
