VIDALIA, La. – While Mississippi prison officials are faced with stiff penalties for overcrowding, Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell said his facility offers an example of a solution to the problem.

Maxwell said Mississippi will have to revise its &uot;truth in sentencing&uot; law and invest heavily in education and drug rehab programs to solve prison overcrowding.

&uot;Either that, or (lawmakers) will have to find a way to raise taxes or cut services&uot;&160;to pay for building more prison facilities, Maxwell added.

In June, a federal judge fined Mississippi $1.8 million as a penalty for prison overcrowding. In 1998, the state’s prison population rose 17 percent, a rise many lawmakers attribute to a 1995 law that requires all inmates to serve 85 percent of their sentences.

Corrections Commissioner Robert Johnson told legislators late last month that they can either change the law or add 4,000 to 5,000 more prison beds to the 20,000 the state already has. Most states, including Louisiana, apply such &uot;truth in sentencing&uot; laws to nonviolent offenders.

Maxwell admitted that in a conservative region like the South, it is difficult to drum up support for shorter sentences, even for non-violent offenders. If you ask 10 people whether criminals should be locked up for the maximum time possible, nine will probably say yes, he said.

&uot;But if you asked the same people if they would be willing to pay more taxes to do that, nine out of 10 would say no,&uot;&160;Maxwell said.

The 85-percent law has many good points but is very expensive to carry out, he said. It does not give the state any leeway to reduce sentences for lesser offenders who have completed self-improvement programs in prison, he added.

&uot;In Mississippi, a person who’s done nothing but sit in jail and twiddle their fingers can go before the parole board and say, ‘I’ve done my time, let me out,’&uot; Maxwell said.

Such programs could include drug rehabilitation programs, religious programs and educational and job skills courses — all of which he believes Mississippi needs to implement as much as possible to keep repeat offender rates down. In Concordia Parish, for example, the repeat offender rate among prisoners at the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility has fallen from 72 percent in 1997 to 19 percent among prisoners in the prisoner’s drug rehab program.

Based on an average cost of $20,000 a year for housing a prisoner, Maxwell estimates the rehab program has saved $1.2 million.

&uot;We’ve got to work hard to change these guys’ lives, but it’s worth it,&uot;&160;Maxwell said. &uot;Otherwise, (Mississippi) will either have to raise taxes or cut services elsewhere to pay for more prison construction.&uot;

&uot;It costs a lot up front to start these programs, but I don’t see how they can afford not to in the long run.&uot;

Louisiana has &uot;been there, done that&uot; when it comes to filling prisons, Maxwell pointed out, and has had to explore other alternatives, such as the development of new correctional facilities by private firms.

&uot;Mississippi (lawmakers) may want to talk to Louisiana officials … and those in other states to see what they’ve done,&uot; Maxwell said.