Idaho joins states struggling with prison overcrowding

As TalkLeft spotlights here, the Idaho legislature is looking to ease the application of its mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws.  Here are excerpts from this AP report:

A bill that would give Idaho judges greater discretion to keep drug addicts out of prison even if they've been convicted of drug-dealing crimes will get a full hearing before the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee. It's a modest effort to loosen Idaho's mandatory sentences for drug offenses and ease overcrowding in the state's prisons....

Idaho now has 7,400 people behind bars. More than half of them are there due to drug-related offenses. The state has shipped about 500 people to other states because there's no more room in prisons in Idaho.  Under the bill, judges could opt for shorter, treatment-focused sentences for addicts convicted of drug-dealing crimes, on the presumption that if they get clean they're less likely to re-offend. 

Currently, Idaho has mandatory sentences for a range of drug-trafficking offenses that give judges little or no discretion. Many sentences entail at least three to five years in prison. The bill "ain't a bad idea," Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, told The Associated Press. "Our prisons are pumped full.  It would be nice to give judges discretion about whether to send somebody to prison or to some other treatment program. In reality, they're the ones that are sitting on the front lines, not the legislators who are making the laws."

Idaho lawmakers have been focusing more and more on trying to address drug problems among those entering the criminal justice system. In addition to LeFavour's bill this year, Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, has introduced another sentencing reform measure that would expand misdemeanor drug courts to help stop minor offenders from sliding into more serious substance abuse-related crimes.

This story provides just another example of how states are having to consider sentencing reforms as they deal with the economic hangover from the tough-on-crime, war-on-drugs, lock-em-all-up mentality that has dominated the political landscape over the last two decades.  Only now are the bills coming due for this politically popular but very expensive approach to non-violent drug crimes.  And, as detailed in the links below, state legislatures from coast-to-coast can no longer afford to ignore these problems:

Recent coverage of other states' struggles with the various costs of large prison populations:

• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Kentucky
• Mississippi
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Virginia
• see also this post, "Costs cause states to pursue prison alternatives"