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There is no state agency where that is more true than the Department of Corrections.
But for this agency there is a ray of hope in a sentencing reform package that has passed the Senate and now is before the House.
It is the product of a two-year study of the state's criminal justice system, and its provisions are expected to save us about $400 million in prison operation costs and new prison construction over the next five years.
It also offers a way to curtail repeat offenses by helping nonviolent offenders become productive citizens.
House members should not hesitate to pass the bill; Gov. Mark Sanford already has expressed strong support for it.
Here are some facts about our prison system gleaned from the Sentencing Reform Commission's report and other sources:
• South Carolina's prison population has increased from 9,100 inmates in 1983 to more than 25,000 in 2009. One in 38 adults in South Carolina is under the control of the corrections department. The prison population is expected to grow to nearly 28,000 by 2015.
• The state Department of Corrections spends $39.85 a day per prisoner, the second lowest rate in the country, but still has run a deficit for the past three years.
• Building new prison space could cost $317 million and add $141 million to the department's annual operating costs.
• The overall inmate population is over capacity at maximum- and medium-security prisons.
• In South Carolina, 46 percent of offenders are in jail, while 54 percent are on probation or parole. Nationally, states average 30 percent in prison and 70 percent on some type of supervised release.
• Sentencing policies have caused the number of people in the state entering prisons for nonviolent drug and property crimes to triple since 1980.
• Forty-nine percent of South Carolina's prison population is being held for nonviolent offenses.
The legislation increases penalties for repeat offenders of "serious" or "most serious" crimes and expands the state's violent crime list. It also reduces sentences for some nonviolent offenders and offers options for community-based programs to help reduce the number of people who return to prison.
The Sentencing Reform Commission sums up its goals to make South Carolina safer this way:
Prison space should be reserved for violent criminals and those with violent tendencies. Low-risk offenders are more effectively managed outside the prison system.
This reform package is a welcome dose of common sense on the subject of crime. We can't afford for it not to become law.
