During an address to the League of Women Voters Greater Verde Valley March 21, at Yavapai College Verde Valley Campus, David Wells offered a highly personal story — one that cast himself and his family in a vulnerable light.
“I did not want to put my son in the position of being a felon,” the Arizona State University professor and research director of the Grand Canyon Institute said. “But that’s what I’ve done.”
The story began innocently enough. Recently, Wells’ son stole various items from Wells’ household and sold them for $110 to a pawn shop. Looking to teach the young man a lesson, Wells reported him to the police, resulting in an arrest.
Wells’ expectations — that his son would be charged with a class 6 misdemeanor, the least severe criminal charge in the state — quickly proved unfounded: Due to prior minor convictions and the “trafficking” of items at a pawn shop, Wells’ son was charged with a class 2 felony.
For context, Wells added, first class murder is a class 1 felony, only one place removed from the category in which his son was placed — for stealing and selling $110 in goods.
“It just seems way overboard,” Wells concluded.
Such alleged injustices were the topic of Wells’ presentation, Prison Crisis: Why is Arizona in the Top 10 States in Incarceration?
According to Wells, “In 2002, Arizona spent 40 percent more on higher education than it did on prisons. Today, Arizona spends almost 60 percent more on incarceration than for higher education. Private prison contracts lock the state into 20-year occupancy agreements.
“The state guarantees to nearly fill the facility or pay as if it were nearly full. Meanwhile, states like New York have half the incarceration rate of Arizona and have cut crime rates at the same time.”
This reality has inspired Wells to assert that Arizona “needs to rethink its priorities to focus more on alternatives and transition services aimed to reduce recidivism, especially for nonviolent offenders and drug-induced crime.”
Wells focused on more than these priorities, however, delving into the specifics of the state’s legislative process.
Currently, Arizona is the only state in the union to retain Truth In Sentencing laws for nonviolent offenders — guaranteeing that every individual sentenced to prison will serve at least 85 percent of their term.
Wells would like to see a move toward Earned Release programs, which allow inmates to reduce their prison sentences through good behavior and continue with probation.
“Sponsored probation with drug treatment options would cost one-fourth as much, and there’s no loss to public safety and likely reduced recidivism,” Wells said, adding that the intractability of state legislators makes such changes difficult. “But these are people’s lives that are impacted.”
Wells also criticized lawmakers for adding new criminal laws without substantial oversight to determine if punishments fit crimes.
For instance, if you collect and turn in a neighbor’s ballot at a polling place, you could be found guilty of a class 6 felony and sentenced to up to one year in prison.
For advocates like Wells, that eventuality is unacceptable for something he views as so minor — and it reveals how indebted lawmakers are to an ideal: “Generally, they think, ‘If I’m tough on crime, I’m doing a good thing’ …. Lesgislators generally don’t take crimes off the books; they only add.”
