Life Behind Bars is No Way to Build Character : California: Here’s a crime to be outraged about. Look at the enormous and growing waste of state resources on prisons and prisoners, while we make no headway against the crime rate.

Two big criminal-justice developments occurred during the last week of January. Charles Rothenberg, convicted of attempting to murder his son by setting him afire, was released from prison. California’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Inmate Population Management, charged with devising ways to make the state’s criminal-justice system saner, issued its report to the Legislature. Most readers, unfortunately, missed the latter story, and therein lies a reason why our views of justice issues are so distorted.

Media and public preoccupation with the release of criminals like Rothenberg and rapist Larry Singleton, paroled in 1987, spoils our chances for rational criminal-justice decision-making. And judging by the commission’s report, a rational and practical approach to crime and justice is exactly what is needed.

The commission’s report includes some astounding data on imprisonment in California. During the past 10 years, for example, the state’s prison population has nearly tripled. The percentage of the state budget spent on adult and juvenile facilities has tripled as well. The result: The crime rate is unchanged.

Currently, there are 172,000 inmates in state adult and juvenile facilities and in local jails. If the status quo is maintained, that number will soar to 250,000 by 1994. The budget for the Department of Corrections alone will be $4 billion, up from $300 million a decade ago.

The cost of financing the construction of every $50,000 minimum-security cell is another $50,000 in interest over 20 years. Operating expenses per cell over the same interval is $300,000. The price tags for each medium- and maximum-security cell are higher. The source for all this money is the state’s general fund.

The Commission on Inmate Population Management also found that California leads the nation in some dubious-distinction categories. The state is in the midst of what one legislator called “the largest prison construction program ever attempted by any governmental entity.” It has the most overcrowded correctional system in the country--at 173% of capacity--with 83,779 prisoners jammed into prisons designed to house 48,391.

Perhaps the most shocking statistic was the number of inmates sent back to prison, not by the courts, but by the parole board. Last year, the total number of these technical violators--mostly on drug-abuse grounds--in 49 states was 19,000. By contrast, California re-imprisoned 34,000--at a cost of $204 million.

While California has rushed to improve its ability to punish convicts, it has dramatically scaled back its rehabilitation programs. Parole failure rates nearly doubled during the past 10 years. Treatment programs disappeared nearly as fast as drug abusers in need of them signed up. The percentage increase in youth and adult corrections funding is nearly double that of either education or health and welfare.

Citizens and elected officials should be morally outraged over the offenses of a Rothenberg and a Singleton. But when politicians pander to fear and hate to build their careers, at great cost and questionable benefit to the state, we should be no less outraged. The media’s chase of the easiest and most sensational crime story is certainly no help--especially when we need to “get smart” and not just “tough” on crime.