Missouri’s Prison Population Declines with Community Approach

ST. LOUIS — Missouri plans to expand community-based centers, diversion initiatives and inmate re-entry programs as officials seek to continue prison population reductions.

As reported in the July/August issue of Correctional News, Missouri ‘s inmate population dropped 3 percent between June 2005 and June 2006, the largest drop in the United States for that time period.

Missouri officials say new community supervision centers are a key factor in reduced inmate populations in a state where prison bed capacity was doubled to accommodate a decade of explosive inmate growth.

The state built five new prisons under former Gov. Mel Carnahan, as the prison population grew from about 14,000 inmates to approximately 30,000 between 1994 and 2004.

As recently as January 2005, Missouri ‘s prison population was growing by about two inmates per day — a rate of growth that would have required the state to build a new prison every several years, officials say.

The state opened pilot community supervision centers in Farmington in 2006 and at St. Joseph soon after. Officials have created plans to open five more centers — in Fulton, Hannibal, Kenneth, Poplar Bluff and Kansas City — that are designed to break the cycle of revolving-door incarceration for certain offenders.

Characterized as offering a supervised second chance to offenders that would be automatically shunted back into prisons, the initiative was conceived as a means of diverting reoffenders to intermediate centers that specialize in providing transitional programs, counseling and support.

A majority of the center’s residents committed drug-related offenses and violated parole conditions by becoming involved with drugs again after their release from prison. Generally, reoffenders with more serious offenses in violation of parole conditions are not considered for placement in the program, officials say.

The Farmington facility provides living accommodations for up to 40 men, who share partitioned ward-type quarters, and six women, who share an open dorm room. The center’s large multipurpose room provides a core space for communal relaxation, GED classes, drug counseling sessions, and other classes and workshops are offered in the facility’s several classrooms.

Differing from the more traditional transitional housing units, which are designed to ease an inmate’s transition from prison to parole, the state’s new community supervision centers are specifically designed for individuals already on parole or for those handed conditional probation sentences.

Residents, who are required to wear ankle-bracelet tracking devices — there are no security fences or window bars — generally stay from one to four months and work in regular paid jobs outside the center, officials say.

The community supervision center initiative, which helped the state achieve the significant reductions in inmate populations, evolved from recent efforts to overhaul criminal sentencing and corrections in the state, officials say. Taking a comprehensive approach to achieving significant systematic reductions in the prison population, reform efforts were coordinated by the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission, officials say.

Under the new sentencing system, probation officers prepare sentencing assessment reports for judges who can then analyze whether community-based programs are suitable on a case-by-case basis. The sentencing recommendations generally emphasize alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent felonies, officials say.

The commission also developed a Web site that allows judges to look at suggested sentences from any computer. The application recommends probation, incarceration or alternative sentences based on a set of data points with information on age, educational level, work history and criminal history.

Detailed narratives about the individual’s family, educational and criminal background are no longer included. Instead individuals are assigned a risk classification that ranges from good to poor

In addition, the state provides special re-entry programs for inmates leaving prison, which are anchored around more traditional transitional housing. Inmates are given a state-issued identification card needed to apply for jobs and receive practical help with things such as writing resumes.