McMaster pushes his plan
By John Temple Ligon temple@thecolumbiastar.com

Attorney General Henry McMaster championed two of his causes before the House Criminal Laws Subcommittee on Wednesday afternoon, April 2. Representative Murrell Smith, chairman, and his committee listened for about 30 minutes while McMaster and one of his prosecutors, DeWayne Pearson, hit the high points on both parole abolition and Middle Courts, already thoroughly covered in the March 28, 2008, Columbia Star.

McMaster wants to abolish parole somewhat on the order of how it was done by the federal government in its prison system in 1984 and by the State of Virginia in 1994. He also noted Governor Beasley in 1995 signed legislation into law that abolished parole in South Carolina for the worst felonies, Class A and B.

By abolishing parole, McMaster says, South Carolina begins a truth- in - sentencing measurement aimed at economy, consistency, accountability and overall fairness.

Besides the parole abolition, McMaster asked the subcommittee to consider Middle Courts, something like the current Drug Courts in South Carolina, which the Middle Courts would absorb. Middle Courts would handle criminals of a non- violent nature, enemies of society who are not outright threats to society as much as they are simply threats to themselves.

With both measures, McMaster assured the House Criminal Laws Subcommittee the prison population would fall. Without Middle Courts but with parole abolition, Virginia experienced an 80% drop in its prison population growth rate over the first decade after enactment. With Middle Courts coupled with parole abolition, the subcommittee heard, South Carolina's prison population should fall even sooner and further.

In South Carolina's total population of 4.4 million people, there are almost 24,000 state prisoners. Each carries a total cost approaching $19,000 per year, but if just the operating overhead is counted and the federal subsidy is taken out, the cost per prisoner to the state is about $15,000, which comes to $360 million dollars a year.