NEW SENTENCING GUIDELINES OFFERED

A circuit judge serving on the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission wants to reserve most of our state's prison cells for violent criminals. "We need to reserve the penitentiary system for the most violent criminals so we can stop this madness of building all these prisons," said Christian County Circuit Judge James Eiffert.

Right now, the commission says, slightly more than half of the 23,711 prisoners in Missouri penal institutions are doing time for nonviolent crimes. This commission has published a set of proposed voluntary sentencing guidelines for 21 felonies. Under these guidelines, about 11 percent of the state's prisoners would have been sentenced to probation instead of prison time, freeing up some 2,600 beds.

The punishment guidelines were based on statistical averages of sentences that Missouri judges handed down in the past. The guidelines were accompanied by alternative sentencing measures such as boot camp, drug treatment and a 120-day "shock" sentence.

Judge Eiffert's approach has much to commend it. Missourians have supported the prison-building efforts of state government in recent years, but this trend can't continue indefinitely. Sooner rather than later, we would hope, sentencing judges should start moving in the direction outlined by this commission.