Most everyone agrees there are problems in West Virginia when it comes to dealing with criminals.
The state’s prisons are overcrowded. Regional jails, which were not intended to house convicted felons, are doing just that because there is not ample space in the prisons.
We’ve advocated alternative sentencing options for nonviolent offenders as opposed to building more prisons. Day report centers appear to be working well. Other options like home confinement and work release also are intended to ease overcrowding.
The state also needs to keep looking at substance abuse treatment since drug addiction often leads to crime.
But the line has to be drawn there. Violent, repeat offenders need to be off the streets and behind bars, no matter what the cost.
That’s why we disagree with the conclusions contained in a report unwrapped last week and based on a study by the West Virginia Law Institute.
Among other things, the report said West Virginia needs to rewrite its criminal code to impose shorter terms for a number of offenses, including murder.
West Virginia University law professor Bob Bastress suggested the state is too harsh in dishing out sentences for felony murder, second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, kidnapping and arson.
Try telling that to the family of a murder victim. Try telling that to a store clerk who will carry emotional scars for years because some thug pointed a gun in her face and demanded money.
Bastress also took exception to:
- The penalty for arson, saying, “A prank to burn down someone’s outhouse or shed is actually a felony.” And it should be. Intentionally setting fire to someone else’s property is not a prank. It’s a deliberate crime.
- Three-strikes-and-you’re-out laws. But we have to ask: How many chances should a person get?
- Third-offense shoplifting, which, according to Bastress, means a thief could end up in prison for one to 10 years for swiping a pack of cigarettes after two previous convictions. But really, how often does that happen? It’s like DUI. A second offense is pleaded down to first offense, a third offense is pleaded down to second offense, and the next thing you know, a person with seven or eight DUI arrests finally kills someone while driving drunk and everybody wants to know why he wasn’t in jail in the first place.
Violent offenders have no regard for the law. Repeat offenders have no regard for the law or rehabilitation.
Plenty can be done to ease prison overcrowding without softening penalties for these kinds of criminals.
