At the end of Haley Barbour's last term as Governor of Mississippi, he pardoned a large number of prisoners, some of them murderers. Needless to say, he was criticized not only in his home state of Mississippi but throughout the United States.
BUT, what if Barbour had done something just a bit different? What if instead of a pardon, he had offered to commute the sentence of all prisoners in the Mississippi corrections system who had not been convicted of a violent crime, robbery or burglary (invasion of another persons property)? This commutation would have excluded murderers, rapists, armed robbers, burglars,home invaders, child molesters and other violent offenders from a pardon but would have included those convicted of drug crimes such as possession, bad checks, fraud, embezzlement, etc.
A commuted sentence is not the same thing as a pardon. When someone is pardoned, a state official forgives the crime that the prisoner was convicted of, and waives the punishment without qualifications. However, when a sentence is commuted, the criminal is not forgiven, and the commutation may be conditional, which is key.
What if Barbour's deal for a commuted sentence had contained one major caveat? That caveat being that if the prisoner accepts the commuted sentence, they would agree to leave the state of Mississippi immediately for the remainder of their term. That's right, the price of freedom would be to go and live in a state outside of Mississippi for the remainder of their term. Any violation of this clause (residence in or visitation inside the state lines of Mississippi) would send the commuted felon back to prison to serve out the remaining sentence.
One of the reasons that a sentence is commuted is because it appears that the punishment may be excessive. In this case, the excessive punishment would not necessarily be for the convicted felon but more for the taxpayer who foots the bill for each inmate at an average cost of $41.47 per inmate (2010 MDOC data) per day.
As of August 1, 2012, the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) housed 25,649 prisoners. If the prisoners of MDOC were a city, they would be the 11th largest city in Mississippi, approximately the size of Clinton, MS.
Those 25,649 prisoners at a rate of $41.47 per inmate equal $1,063,664 per day. That is a $388,237,360 tax burden on Mississippi's citizens each year.
At present, during these hard economic times, the U.S. and Mississippi have too many people incarcerated at too large a cost to the taxpayer. If Barbour, who was never in support of tax increases, had been a bit more creative in his release of prisoners, he could have at least helped the people of Mississippi with tax relief by reducing the cost of operating our prisons.
MDOC statistics show the following breakdown of the number of inmates and their offense: Violent 7773 / Sex 2763 / Drug 7240 / and Property 7840. If half of the drug related and property offense related inmates had been given commuted sentences due to their lack of bodily injury against another person or invasion of another person's property, that would have decreased the prison population by 7,540 less prisoners.
The release of 7,540 inmates from our prisons and state borders would have saved the taxpayers of Mississippi $312,683 per day and $114,129,587 annually.
The sad thing is, if Barbour had commuted the sentences of over 7,500 prisoners, he would have probably been seen of as being "soft on crime" instead of a budgetary genius and humanitarian. That is the state of politics in 2012.
Those 25,649 prisoners at a rate of $41.47 per inmate equal $1,063,664 per day. That is a $388,237,360 tax burden on Mississippi's citizens each year.
At present, during these hard economic times, the U.S. and Mississippi have too many people incarcerated at too large a cost to the taxpayer. If Barbour, who was never in support of tax increases, had been a bit more creative in his release of prisoners, he could have at least helped the people of Mississippi with tax relief by reducing the cost of operating our prisons.
MDOC statistics show the following breakdown of the number of inmates and their offense: Violent 7773 / Sex 2763 / Drug 7240 / and Property 7840. If half of the drug related and property offense related inmates had been given commuted sentences due to their lack of bodily injury against another person or invasion of another person's property, that would have decreased the prison population by 7,540 less prisoners.
The release of 7,540 inmates from our prisons and state borders would have saved the taxpayers of Mississippi $312,683 per day and $114,129,587 annually.
The sad thing is, if Barbour had commuted the sentences of over 7,500 prisoners, he would have probably been seen of as being "soft on crime" instead of a budgetary genius and humanitarian. That is the state of politics in 2012.
