FRANKFORT - Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson has a different perspective on the debate over sentencing and the cost of incarceration than a recent treatise written by University of Kentucky law professor Robert Lawson.

While not exactly a "Lock them up and throw away the key" approach, Larson says the costs of imprisonment are well worth the benefit of keeping criminals off the streets and their crimes out of people's lives.

"For example, didn't it seem strange to you that Lawson doesn't even mention the dramatic drop in the crime rate that accompanied the rise in the incarceration rate? Clearly he doesn't want improved public safety to be part of the discussion," Larson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Larson takes special issue with Lawson's observations and conclusions on Kentucky's own "three strikes" law that applies longer prison terms to people with multiple convictions.

The persistent felony offender law "renders the seriousness of an offender's conduct irrelevant to his sentence and permits (and sometimes even requires) punishment that is morally indefensible, that debases all notions of common sense, and that works to warehouse for extended periods offenders who are not likely to inflict serious harm on the public," Lawson wrote.

Larson counters that a study in his own prosecution office in Lexington since 1996 has shown that 2,062 defendants facing lengthening of their sentences under the PFO laws had 28,035 prior convictions, or an average of more than 13 each.

"Prosecutors in Kentucky and across our country have discovered that focusing on the prosecution, conviction and incarceration of those criminals who are violent and those who commit crime after crime has been a smart crime prevention strategy," Larson said.

While Lawson points to the exploding cost of prisons, Larson counters with the benefits.

According to Lawson's study, Kentucky's corrections budget was about $7 million in 1970 when the state had just over 2,800 inmates. By 2002, the budget was 45 times larger, more than $300 million, with about five times more inmates. Perhaps even more revealing, Lawson said Kentucky's population rose by 25 percent from 1970 to 2000, while the inmate population increased by 444 percent.

"In the 1980s, Kentuckians were fed up with the rising crime rate and demanded protection from criminals," Larson said. "The General Assembly responded with mandatory sentencing laws, in particular, Kentucky's PFO laws, about which Lawson now complains. Did they work to reduce crime? You bet they did. The crime rate began a 25-year drop, and the public was grateful."

Public opinion surveys show crime remains one of the public's most significant concerns, Larson said.

Lawson's study has helped prompt a sentencing review commission put together by Chief Justice Joseph Lambert.

"Unfortunately, I fear that we in Kentucky are about to go down the same path and repeat the same mistake we made in the 1960s when our criminal justice policy makers relied less on punishment and protecting the public from dangerous felons by incarceration, and more on social programs," Larson said.

"We all want convicted felons to be rehabilitated, but first and foremost we must protect ALL of our citizens from those who will harm them," Larson continued "After all, the primary purpose of government is to do all that it can to guarantee the safety of the public."

Mark R. Chellgren is the Frankfort correspondent for The Associated Press.