Greenleaf's measure, however, wouldn't be needed if more prosecutors were doing their job.

His bill would allow the Department of Corrections to recommend inmates for the State Intermediate Punishment Program. That power is now held by district attorneys who prosecute cases, but too often they don't use it.

Eighty percent of offenders who are potentially eligible for Pennsylvania's three-year-old State Intermediate Punishment Program are never recommended.

Greenleaf attributed much of that to unfamiliarity with the program. But another factor could be prosecutors who have only prison in mind at sentencing.

Currently, to get into SIPP the prosecutor must make the recommendation. The Department of Corrections then does an evaluation, and if it decides the inmate qualifies, the prosecutor can ask the trial judge to divert the inmate to SIPP at sentencing.

Under Greenleaf's bill, corrections officials will be able to evaluate inmates in the prison population without a prosecutor's prior recommendation. Prison officials would then ask the prosecutor to ask the trial judge to void the old sentence and instead divert the defendant to SIPP.

That's a very balky process, but Greenleaf is just trying to open another avenue to SIPP for inmates who deserve the opportunity but didn't get it because a prosecutor never acted.

SIPP can benefit society by reducing crime. State prison officials contend that the program reduces the recidivism rate, although they did not have available figures.

Inmates in SIPP spend at least seven months in prison followed by 17 months in a halfway house or more-supervised corrections- controlled facility. A judge may sentence a SIPP participant to probation after the 24 months. Anyone who fails to meet individualized drug-treatment goals while in SIPP may be resentenced under traditional guidelines.

There's no good excuse for any prosecutor, defense lawyer or judge to not know about SIPP and make sure every suitable defendant is evaluated for it.

Pennsylvania's prison population has grown 21 percent since 2001, and is expected to grow 4 percent per year through 2012, according to corrections officials.

Much of that increase can be attributed to the state's tendency to lock up nonviolent offenders who could be dealt with otherwise.

Sending them to prison is expensive. It costs more than $32,000 a year to house an inmate. The state's corrections budget in 2007 was $1.6 billion, and now it's asking for $600 million to build three more prisons.

One in every 273 Pennsylvanians is in state prison. More use should be mad of less-costly alternatives such as SIPP that divert non- violent defendants to nonprison settings where they can get drug treatment and other help.