Gongwer, Aug. 25, 2009

Those committing financial crimes are more dangerous than those committing violent crimes, according to a report released Tuesday by the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending that looked at the effect of delayed parole.

The group, which has been pushing for higher parole rates as a way to save prison beds and funding, released Denying parole at first

eligibility: How much public safety does

it actually buy?, which used Department of Corrections data to follow 76,040 inmates convicted after 1981 and paroled before 1999. The report found that of those returning to prison for a new crime, it was most commonly larceny.

Of the total for whom there were records, 17.6 percent returned to prison for a new crime within four years. And 30 percent of those new crimes were larceny accounting, the report said. All assaultive crimes - assault, murder, rape, robbery - together accounted for 25.4 percent of the return convictions.

The report also showed murderers and rapists were less likely to return to prison than other criminals. Of those convicted of homicide, only 7 percent committed another crime within four years and only 2.7 percent committed another assaultive crime. For those convicted of sex crimes,

92.5 percent stayed out of prison and 4.2 percent committed another crime against a person.

Those originally convicted of larceny were more likely to return to prison on another crime (24.8 percent) and those convicted of robbery were most likely to commit another assaultive crime (8.1 percent), the report said.

"Lengthy incarceration for the sake of being punitive is not a reasonable crime control strategy," CAPPS Executive Director Barbara Levine said. "We must stop confusing the seriousness of a person's past crime with the risk that he or she will commit a new one. We routinely incarcerate thousands of people who have served their minimum sentences and would not pose a threat to anyone. The cost to prisoners, their families and taxpayers is enormous."

Ms. Levine said the state should instead establish a presumption that inmates will be paroled at their earliest release date and develop programs to ensure that those most likely to reoffend receive services.

Corrections spokesperson Russ Marlan said the department is working to parole some of those prisoners to whom CAPPS referred. "We're creating some services and supervision that we can offer to the parole board to look at those folks," he said. "That's what we seeing is an increase in the parole rate of folks in that category."

And he said the state is seeing its crime rate and recidivism rate fall at the same time paroles are up and prison dispositions are down.