The 85% solution.

• Author: Hunzeker, Donna
• Position: Sentencing laws

PROMINENT AMONG STATE ANTI-CRIME MEASURES ARE 85-PERCENT-OF-SENTENCE SOLUTIONS. THE NEW LAWS PROMISE MORE "TRUTH IN SENTENCING" AND OFTEN, GROWTH IN CORRECTIONS SPENDING.

Fed up with crime, states are taking aim at sentencing laws to ensure that convicts will spend at least 85 percent of their sentence behind bars. Often dubbed as "truth in sentencing," the laws are aimed at keeping dangerous offenders in prison longer.

A new law in Florida grew out of a petition drive last year that would have added the 85-percent-of-sentence minimum to the state's constitution. Although the measure didn't make the ballot because of technical errors, legislators liked the idea. It became law this session along with separate bills that revised the state's sentencing guidelines and set a mandatory-minimum sentence for repeat, violent offenders.

COSTS WILL GO UP

But there is a price. The sentencing package is expected to cost Florida more than $2 billion over the next five years and double the prison population, currently at about 60,000 inmates.

Florida's corrections budget already is feeling the strain of increased operations costs. FY 1996 appropriations are up a whopping 50 percent over FY 1995 expenditures, not counting capital outlays that will total nearly $100 million this fiscal year, according to legislative fiscal analysts. Overall growth in Florida's FY '96 general fund is expected to be a modest 3.2 percent - stark contrast to the massive growth in corrections spending.

In Montana, "dangerous" criminals are required to spend 85 percent of their sentences in prison. Montana lawmakers also are reviewing "good time" sentence credits and may call for eliminating them by 1997.

Last year, the California Legislature approved limits on work credits to ensure that people imprisoned for violent felonies serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. Legislative analysts estimate that cumulative costs of the longer terms will reach $10 million.

Parole is also in the crosshairs. In a special session late last year, Virginia lawmakers abolished parole and good conduct allowances for anyone convicted of a felony. Despite provisions to allow for geriatric release of some prisoners and to develop local alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent felons, the state is expected to double its prison population by the year 2000 and require $2 billion for more prison space.

Arizona, in a complete rewrite of the state's criminal code, eliminated parole and other forms...