This is a guest opinion column

Let’s take a deep breath and think for a few minutes before we spend $1 BILLION DOLLARS for a prison to house 4,000 inmates. We have not done a good job of incarcerating in the past. The history of Alabama prisons is dismal. The US Justice Department has filed suit against the state for unconstitutional conditions in our prisons. Why pour more money down this drain?

Instead of spending the money on lockups, why not offer a hands-up to fellow citizens convicted of nonviolent crimes so that they don’t have to rely on drugs, theft and other crimes. Head off the outcome of poverty and hopelessness.

Amazingly, about half of states in our country offer free college tuition at two-year schools. Tennessee, Georgia, even Mississippi have programs moving in the direction of free community colleges and technical schools.

We could join that group. I would wager that an unemployed young man would have better odds of living a decent life if we let him take classes at Bessemer Tech instead of living a life of crime on the streets. We already are funding a far-reaching system throughout the state from Calhoun Community College to Wallace Community College. Those institutions are already built.

Inmates could support the state instead of the state supporting them. Alabama community colleges add $6.6 billion a year to the state’s economy, according to a study by Lightcast and reported by the Alabama Community College System.

The tuition and fees of two-year institutions in Alabama amount to about $5,000 for two years. So, why not require them to attend classes. At Bessemer Tech they could study to become plumbers, welders, auto mechanics or engineering technicians. The cost is about $125 per credit hour. So, for 4,000 inmates the cost would be about $18 million for two years of study.

The numbers are encouraging. Inmates who participated in education programs while in prison had a 43 percent lower rate of winding back into prison. A friend who taught at Holman prison in Escambia County said it was a very successful experience. The inmates were a captive audience, he noted. Granted, many of these men and women would need mental health counseling to get onto a productive life track. But there would be a lot of money still available for that.

We don’t want to reward criminal behavior by giving nonviolent inmates free schooling for committing crimes, so we could just follow sister states and let everyone go for free. Let’s take a risk. Job training instead of incarceration. I’d bet my last dollar that the gamble would be worth the money.

Jean Lufkin Bouler was an education reporter for The Birmingham News. She has written several nonfiction books.