Just 13 states witnessed declines in the number of citizens serving time either in prison or jails, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Of those, Montana led the way, with the number of incarcerated citizens falling by 3.9 percent in 2007.
“It didn't come as a surprise,” said Department of Corrections director Mike Ferriter, adding that it was a “satisfying, gratifying feeling” for Montana's success to be singled out by the report.
Some 3,572 Montanans were behind bars at the end of 2006, according to the report. At the beginning of 2008, that number had fallen by 141, with 3,431 incarcerated.
The decline bucks the national trend of increasing incarceration rates, the study said. It concluded that more than one in 100 American adults is now behind bars and the nation's overall incarceration rate grew by 1.6 percent in 2007.
The United States leads the world for the number of persons behind bars, according to the report, outpacing China, which has a larger population.
Ferriter credits the state's falling number of incarcerated citizens to a host of new programs that aim to hold felons accountable, but also help them deal with drug addiction, alcoholism, mental illness and other personal issues that often lie at the root of criminal behavior.
To that end, Montana has built lockdown alcohol treatment centers for repeat drunken drivers, opened two methamphetamine treatment prisons for addicts who ran afoul of the law for using drugs, and has beefed up probation and parole offices around the state with mental health and drug addiction counselors. The state has also expanded pre-release centers and other prison alternatives that allow felons to repay their debt to society while still living in their communities, holding jobs, paying taxes and supporting their families, Ferriter said.
Ferriter spoke by phone Friday from Lewistown, where he was attending the first graduating class of the NEXUS Program, a methamphetamine treatment prison.
He said many of the graduates talked about how difficult the program was, and explained that just because they didn't serve hard time in Deer Lodge didn't mean their sentence was any easier.
The state now aims to reserve prison cells for the 20 percent of Montana's most dangerous incorrigible felons, and punish the remaining 80 percent in some kind of community program.
While recidivism rates for the newer meth treatment prisons isn't yet known, graduates from Montana's older alcohol treatment prisons are less likely to commit new crimes than inmates who are discharged from prison.
Adam Gelb, director of Pew's Public Safety Performance Project, which produced the report, said several other states are also moving toward Montana's model. Two, Kansas and Texas, have seen particular success.
Like Montana, those states came to the change after years of spending more money on corrections and, eventually, hitting state budget crunches.
“Tight budgets bring people to the table,” Gelb said. “It's usually a budget crisis that helps policymakers focus on where they can squeeze out efficiencies.”
Gelb said the national trend toward greater incarceration has not produced safer communities. Consequently, it's time for policymakers to look at better ways to spend corrections dollars.
Montana spent much of the 1990s building new prison cells, adding almost 1,000 new prison beds, including 500 at the state's first and only private prison. In 2002, a state budget crisis forced the agency to release hundreds of low-level inmates and debut the state's first “sanction center,” a sort of short-term prison “taste test” for probationers who violate the terms of their release.
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