NH DOC In Crisis
New Hampshire’s corrections budget is one of the biggest and one of the hardest departments to cut because Commissioner William Wrenn can’t simply close his prisons and send inmates home. But many think this economic crisis might be the state’s best chance to find cheaper, better ways to do its prison business.
“There is nothing like lean times to make you smart,” said former speaker of the New Hampshire House Donna Sytek, who saw lawmakers through a similarly severe downturn in the 1990s. It was out of that crisis that Sytek persuaded lawmakers to rewrite misdemeanor laws so more minor offenses could be punished with just a fine, not jail time. Doing so has meant big savings for the state, she said. Those low-level offenders weren’t getting jail time anyway, but because incarceration was a possibility on the books, the state was obligated to provide a free lawyer to those poor defendants. By eliminating the threat of jail time, the state eliminated its obligation to pay for lawyers in minor cases … “It’s like eating an elephant,” she said of tackling the rising costs of corrections, whose budget was about $107 million last year. “You have to start somewhere. Start nibbling at the ear. You can’t do it all at once.”
Wrenn has delivered his requested budget to Gov. John Lynch, but the details and bottom line won’t be shared with the public or lawmakers until mid-February, when Lynch unveils his proposed budget. In the meantime, Wrenn has been preparing legislators to think beyond budget cuts as the solution to the corrections budget. For one, he’s asked legislators to rethink the threshold for theft cases. Stealing something worth $500 or more can carry a prison sentence, lesser values are punishable by a fine or jail time. Wrenn likes to say a good bike costs more than $500 and wonders whether stealing one is severe enough to send someone to prison, where a year’s stay costs taxpayers about $32,000. “Is that being smart on crime?” Wrenn asked in a recent interview …
Inmates cost the state not only the $32,000 a year for basic incarceration, but also thousands in medical bills because the state is obligated to cover medical expenses when inmates are behind bars. Inmates supervised on the outside, however, are eligible for private insurance or Medicaid, which means savings for the state. It’s also far cheaper to pay a probation officer to supervise an inmate in an intense alternative program than to house someone inside a prison. In a recent study, The New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies compared that cost by looking at a year inside prison against a year in Strafford County’s Drug Court, an intensive supervision and treatment program that lets inmates live at home. The difference was staggering: $32,000 a year in prison versus about $11,400 a year in the Strafford County’s alternative program …
Wrenn at least has some supporters in the right places. Rep. David Welch, a Kingston Republican who sits on the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, supports Wrenn’s notion of rethinking penalties for nonviolent crimes. He also remains hopeful that the state will build a new women’s prison, which is one of Wrenn’s top priorities. The investment now would save money, Welch believes, because the current facility’s infrastructure requires more staff than a properly built prison would need. He’d also like to build a women’s prison on the state’s initiative rather than be forced into by a lawsuit over the lack of programming offered at the women’s prison. Rep. Marjorie Smith, a Durham Democrat who chairs the House Finance Committee, also liked what she heard from Wrenn on alternative ideas. And while she believes violent offenders belong in prison, she doesn’t believe it makes financial or moral sense to keep people there who could be supervised and better treated outside the walls.
This is just a sample of the long and worthwhile article in the Concord Monitor.
Early Release, Economic Issues, Female Inmates, New Hampshire