Cousins: Bill won’t help overcrowded prisons problem

Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins said a proposed bill to eliminate parole for individuals who commit three violent crimes would not provide a solution to the massive overcrowding at jails and prisons throughout the state.”I’m a pretty conservative guy, and I believe that people who do violent and bad things should be put away for a long period of time,” Cousins said in an interview at Middleton Jail recently. “Sometimes we can be a little lenient on that in this state. And that creates a feeling that we need three strikes.”Both branches of the state’s Legislature passed versions of the so-called Three Strikes Bill nearly unanimously last year, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, said Thursday.The Senate’s version requires any person convicted of a third violent felony to serve out the entirety of his or her sentence and be ineligible for parole, but also reduces mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses, Tarr said.Cousins said he would like the bill to have a provision requiring heavy post-release supervision, in the form of GPS monitoring and frequent check-ins with post-release officers, imposed at sentencing.”That needs to be in there. Post-release supervision is key.”Tarr said the Senate’s version of the bill does include a provision for mandatory post-release supervision that is 25 percent of the maximum term of incarceration imposed at sentencing, with a minimum of nine months and a maximum of two years.”A lot of advocates for people incarcerated raised the question of people being not ready to re-enter the population,” Tarr said. “And if people are imprisoned for longer then re-entry will be more difficult, so that’s why that’s in there.”Critics of the proposed bill have argued that it would put a strain on already overcrowded prisons and jails. Cousins agreed.”It can sound good, but the reality is where do we put them?” he asked.Middleton Jail currently has more than 1,300 inmates, Cousins said, adding that about 1,137 is a “workable number” for the jail. Combined with continually increasing budget cuts, the sheriff said he finds himself “warehousing” inmates rather than rebuilding lives.”It’s the old adage, ‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste.’ Well that’s true in prison. I call it the prison industrial complex,” he said. “When you’re just warehousing you’re not challenging the inmates. Warehousing means the inmate is not in a program designed to better him.”Overcrowded prisons are also much more dangerous, he said.”You have more fights, more altercations with officers. It’s just not safe,” Cousins said.Tarr conceded that with prison capacity at about 142 percent in the state, overcrowding is an issue, but said the bill is also seeking to reduce mandatory minimum sentences in the state for drug offenses in order to “make room” for more dangerous criminals.”If these folks are dangerous enough to commit multiple murders or other violent felonies, then we need to find a way to accommodate them,” Tarr said.A committee of three members each from the House and Senate, including Tarr, are currently in the process of reconciling the two versions of the bill and will likely present the final version, Tarr said, within the next two weeks.”The absolute deadline is July, and I’m sure it’ll happen by then, but I think it’ll be happening much sooner.”Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].