New Jersey could cut some of its estimated $4 billion budget deficit today if it joined some 25 other states and the federal government in eliminating mandatory prison sentences.

The state's corrections, parole and juvenile justice system costs taxpayers more than $1 billion a year. In 2002, 61 percent of the state's approximately 30,000 prison inmates were serving mandatory minimum sentences, many for drug-related offenses. To cut prison costs and reduce repeat offenders, other states have sentenced these offenders to mandatory drug and mental health treatment. This change has freed up money for other state services, such as education costs.

A New Jersey panel has spent more than a year studying whether the state should make similar changes. It's time for action. New Jersey Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a group that has long advocated against inflexible sentencing guidelines, released a poll Tuesday showing a majority of New Jerseyans favored giving judges discretion to sentence drug offenders and order mandatory treatment rather than jail.

A spokeswoman for acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said he is reviewing the issue. What's to review? Codey must set a deadline within the next few weeks at most for the commission to make its recommendations.

It is likely the panel will find what other similar groups have already determined - that mandatory sentences have not kept the public safer, as they were intended to do. Instead, the sentences have added to taxpayers' burden.

Mandatory minimums ought to be eliminated. Give back to judges the discretion to make the punishment fit the criminal.