Iowa’s prisons have serious problems that are delaying release of inmates into rehabilitation programs and potentially costing taxpayers millions of extra dollars, the state’s ombudsman told lawmakers Wednesday. Report from the Des Moines Register.

Among the problems:
- A work-release program that costs taxpayers less than daily prison fees has a waiting list of 800 inmates. In one inmate’s case alone, the additional cost to taxpayers was $25,000.

• Some prison officials have improperly held inmates’ earnings instead of applying them to victim restitution or court reimbursements.

• A gradual release program has been revamped so dramatically that some offenders are unable to do what is required to qualify for early release.

“We can’t continue to keep people in prison when they would be better placed in a less restrictive environment at a significantly reduced cost,” Iowa Ombudsman William Angrick said.

Lawmakers agreed the issues and likely extra costs are vital at a time when the state is discussing cuts to key services, such as education and health programs for low-income families.

Rep. Wayne Ford, a member of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, expressed anger at the findings and told committee members they would be violating their duties as lawmakers if they fail to immediately look more closely at the issue, despite a shortened legislative session.

Ford, D-Des Moines, has worked with prisoners through his social agency, Urban Dreams. Failures in rehabilitation programs not only cost taxpayers money but also increase the likelihood of recidivism, he said.

“Our No. 1 job as a Legislature is the public safety of this state,” Ford said, noting Angrick’s report. “Somebody is going to kill somebody, saying they’re mad as hell because these things are against me.

“This blood is on our hands.”
Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, said the administrators who could speak about the programs were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

However, Scaletta pointed to November board notes in which Director John Baldwin thanked Angrick for his comments about prisoner payments and said that a final resolution would be handled when the attorney general issues a ruling.

The attorney general has not issued any opinions or advice on the matter, Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the office, said Wednesday.

About 800 inmates are on a waiting list for placement in a residential facility as required for work-release programs, according to Angrick’s report. The programs save taxpayers $19.08 a day compared with prison costs.

He said one unidentified inmate was held in prison 351 days longer than anticipated. If the work-release program had been immediately available, the prisoner would have been eligible for lesser levels of imprisonment, such as day reporting and eventually parole, which costs about $3.75 a day. Angrick estimated the extra costs to taxpayers at about $25,000.

A September state audit of the corrections department verified Angrick’s findings about prisoner payments. Inmates at the North Central Correctional Facility in Webster County, by labor law, should have been paid about $7.80 an hour to pull tarps over harvested grain at two local elevators. Instead, they were paid about $6.15, the audit showed.

The disparities are important because much of the earnings from prisoners are turned over for court or victim reimbursements. However, according to Angrick’s findings, some of that money was not being properly distributed.

In another finding, Angrick noted that some prisoners through no fault of their own have lost the ability to meet the Iowa Board of Parole’s requirements to receive early release.

The problems stem from a policy change made a year ago that no longer allows inmates to live and work outside the secured perimeter of the prisons, the report said.

“If the Board of Parole requires an offender to work outside the fence as a prerequisite for release, but the Department of Corrections’ policy prevents the offender from doing so, one can safely draw the conclusion that the releases of many offenders will be delayed,” Angrick said. “That will undoubtedly increase incarceration costs for the state of Iowa.”

The Oversight Committee will attempt to organize a public meeting with the corrections department, said Rep. Vicki Lensing, D-Iowa City, co-chairwoman of the committee.

janchavarie Early Release, Inmate Programs, Iowa

Oregon lawmakers moved a bill to the Ways and Means Committee Tuesday that temporarily suspends a law passed last session to allow some nonviolent offenders to get out of prison early. Story from The Oregonian.

The original law, passed last summer to help the state’s Department of Corrections save $6 million, allows some nonviolent offenders to earn an extra 10 percent off their sentences for good behavior. Previously, non-violent offenders were limited to a 20 percent credit. For the inmates who have earned the extra earned time, it has meant an average of 55 days off their sentences.

Prosecutors and Oregon Attorney General John Kroger objected to the increase in earned time, calling it too generous.

Tough-on-crime advocates, who’ve argued that 30 percent earned time is excessive, persuaded legislators to suspend the additional 10 percent earned time to study it and then reinstate it in 2011. The amendments to Senate Bill 1007 also include a list of violent offenses to be excluded from the early-release option.

In the original bill, legislators built in a review of the extra earned time credit and judges have turned down 766 requests since July. Another 3,473 inmates have been approved for early release. Some 952 inmates have earned the extra 10 percent and already been released, according to the Department of Corrections.

To date, Oregon Department of Corrections officials say the law has saved about $4 million of the projected $6 million.

janchavarie Early Release, Oregon

With his swollen legs and a throaty rasp that whistles like a kettle through his broken teeth, Eddie Jones is an unlikely man to make history. News reported in the NY Times.

He is 89 and dying, a former loan shark who, at 69, shot another man dead on a Harlem street in what he claimed was self-defense. Now he is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in a prison hospital bed in this upstate town, riddled with heart disease and probably cancer, though his doctors are not certain about the cancer because Mr. Jones has refused most every medical test.

Mr. Jones’s original parole date was in 2015, but he stands to go free in the coming weeks under a new state law that makes chronically as well as terminally ill inmates eligible for early release. Inmates must be deemed physically or cognitively unable to present a threat to society.

The law, passed with the state budget last April, expanded the eligibility list to add those convicted of violent crimes including second-degree murder (like Mr. Jones), first-degree manslaughter and sex offenses, so long as the ailing inmates have served half of their time.

But despite fanfare within the corrections industry about the humanitarian and financial benefits of compassionate release — New York is one of a dozen states that have expanded, enacted or streamlined programs over the past two years — the policy shift has had minimal effect. Experts attribute this to the fear that no matter how sick, freed inmates might commit further crimes, as well as to the difficulty of placing dying criminals in nursing homes.

“The problem is, when we start trying to put people out, there are others in the community who are sure we’re trying to make more crime in the community,” said Dr. Lester Wright, chief medical officer for the New York State Department of Correctional Services. “We’re also competing for beds. Some people think my patients aren’t as valuable as other people in society.”

The embrace of compassionate release comes as the nation’s prison population is at a historic high — 1.6 million people as of 2008, according to the Justice Department — compounded by a surge in aging and sick inmates serving longer sentences. In 2008, there were 74,100 inmates ages 55 and older, a 79 percent increase from 1999. New York estimates the cost of caring for a gravely ill inmate at $150,809 a year. Once released, they are usually cared for by family members or placed in nursing homes or hospices, their expenses largely covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

But while the new state guidelines led to a surge in applications for medical parole — 202 inmates last year, compared with 66 in 2008 — they have hardly changed the outcome. Mr. Jones would, in fact, be the first freed under the new guidelines (the seven inmates released last year were eligible under the old rules).

The National Conference of State Legislatures said 39 states had compassionate release programs, but many of them also have minimal impact.

In California, where federal judges ordered the state to cut the prison population by 40,000, three people were granted compassionate release last year. In Alabama, where prisons are at double their capacity, four sick inmates were let out on compassionate release in fiscal 2009; 35 other prisoners in Alabama died while their applications were being reviewed.

Since New York adopted medical parole in 1992, at the height of the AIDS crisis, 364 people have been released.

“Medical parole was designed to consider the humanitarian needs of inmates as well as the safety of the community,” said Brian Fischer, commissioner of the State Department of Correctional Services. “Anybody can tell us they want medical parole, but the numbers who qualify are going to be a lot smaller than the ones who want it.”

Advocates for prisoners argue that fear of recidivism is unreasonable, especially for convicts close to death. Corrections officials said during the 18 years the program in New York has been in effect, three medically paroled inmates have ended up back in prison, none for violent crimes.

“Politicians and high-level officials and bureaucrats don’t want to be accused of being soft on crime, even if the prisoners are terminally ill and there’s no possible risk to public safety,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prison advocacy group.

Indeed, the release last summer in Scotland of an ill Libyan man convicted in the bombing of an airplane over Lockerbie created an international furor. Last fall, anger over New York’s new law erupted when Gregory Felder, who was convicted of murdering a Radio Shack employee on Long Island in 2004 and is now gravely ill, was considered for parole. (He was turned down; and a legislative loophole that had made him eligible despite having not yet served half of his sentence was subsequently closed.)

Other cases have unfolded far from the public glare. Cinderella Marrett, 74, who was caught at Kennedy International Airport in 2007 smuggling cocaine in her girdle — to offset medical expenses, her daughter said — was released in May 2009. Stricken with cancer, she is living in a nursing home in the Bronx.

Since 2005, at least 16 New York inmates have died while waiting for the parole board to decide their fate.

Timothy McGowan, a once-burly high school dropout from Deer Park, N.Y., spent half of his 50 years behind bars for 11 felony convictions, including robbery and second-degree manslaughter. By the time he was thrown back in prison for a parole violation in April 2009, cancer was consuming his lungs, whittling away his body and creeping up his brain stem.

In July, when Mr. McGowan could barely walk, his prison doctors applied on his behalf for compassionate release; his final wish was to have one last cup of tea with his mother in their Long Island home. Instead, he died at Fishkill Correctional Facility on Nov. 7, two days before the parole board was to hear his case.

Among the prisoners in New York newly eligible but denied release last year was Sergio Black, 38, a former Marine who said he had fought in the first Gulf War.

Mr. Black was convicted in 2005 of raping his former companion, which he denied. In 2006, his spinal cord was injured in a prison basketball game. Now a quadriplegic at the Walsh Regional Medical Unit of the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., Mr. Black is a “poster boy for medical parole,” according to his lawyer, Stephen Dratch, because it would be difficult for him to commit another physical crime. But the parole board rejected his application, saying Mr. Brown “exhibited little or no insight or remorse for the victim.”

Mr. Jones, the near-nonagenarian and former loan shark known by his hospice aides as the Harlem Knight, was supposed to go before the parole board in December, but the hearing was pushed back twice because the court had not yet sent a transcript from his sentencing. His next scheduled parole date is next month, and he remains bedridden in the hospice at Coxsackie Correctional Facility upstate.

A long-lost niece, Marcy Jones, who lives in Washington, has poured her heart into pushing corrections officials and the governor’s office to grant the parole. She is optimistic enough that she has bought her uncle a new wardrobe and has set up a battery of medical appointments for him.

“Once I get him out, I’m going to advocate for others,” Ms. Jones said. “There are other Uncle Eddies out there.”

janchavarie Early Release, New York

The Tulare County jail system has been overcrowded since 1988, and it’s unlikely a revised law that will result in more releases based on good behavior will help, a local jails official said Tuesday. News from the Visalia Times.

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Department was forced to release 205 inmates Monday under a modified state law that gives inmates more credit for good behavior.

“We book 30 to 50 inmates a day. The overcrowding issue will not go away with this one law change,” Capt. Jim Hinesly said. “We will be releasing more as soon as we are over capacity again.”

The law is expected to save more than $5,300 per day each housed inmate would have served. However, Hinesly says the jail will soon be back up to capacity, which is 1,554 inmates. There were 1,544 inmates as of Tuesday.

Hinesly said it would take four months to determine the total savings and effectiveness of the early releases.

The changes apply to all nonviolent inmates in California prisons who have not been convicted of a sex crime, including those in county jail facilities. The changes are intended to reduce prison and jail overcrowding and budget issues.

The Sheriff’s Department released 87 housed inmates and 118 inmates who were in alternative work programs and were not housed in a county facility.

Old guidelines gave inmates with good behavior one-third day’s credit for each full day served. Changes made to California Penal Code 4019, which took effect Monday, give one-half day’s credit for good behavior, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

The new policy concerns some local law enforcement agencies and public officials.

“If there are no consequences for bad behavior, there will be bad behavior,” said Phil Vandegrift, vice mayor of Tulare. “I don’t think anything is being fixed with this law.”

Visalia Police Department officials agree that early jail releases cause concern.

“It is always a concern when that many people are released all at once,” Visalia police Sgt. Steve Phillips said. “I wish there was an another way of getting through the economic crisis.”

janchavarie Early Release, Overcrowding

In what could be claimed an innovative approach to rehabilitation, an Indian prison is offering its inmates commutation of sentences for completing a three-month yoga course. Reported by the Xinhua News Agency.

According to the prison authorities, more than 400 inmates have enrolled themselves for the yoga course introduced by the Gwalior Jail in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the successful completion of which will see their prison terms reduced by 36 days, and some 68 are set for early release.

“We are running yoga classes in many jails. The basic objective to practice yoga in jails is to help the inmates to master the art, bust the stress, anger management and to keep them fit,” Sanjay Mani, Inspector-General of Prisons in Madhya Pradesh, told the media in state capital Bhopal.

“We offer remission of sentence to prisoners who admit themselves for educational courses and yoga will be covered in the remission,” he added.

Yoga exponents have welcomed the move.

“Yoga helps to control the mind, create self-awareness and in the process helps you to achieve mental and emotional well being in addition to physical fitness. It encompasses within its purview factors that contribute to good health and vitality,” said Romen Roy Chowdhury, a foremost recession yoga exponent who teaches in Delhi and Mumbai.

“Yoga inculcates discipline in temperament, soothes the turbulent mind through meditation, and helps you to focus and channelise our lives,” he added.

In fact, Gwalior Jail is not the only one which has introduced the yoga course. The Tihar Jail in the national capital last year introduced yoga to cut stress levels inside prison.

Tihar authorities have made an hour-long yoga session in the open gardens mandatory for inmates and the policemen, under the supervision of a trainer.

“The yoga session will be held between 07:00 a.m. and 08:00 a.m. . The inmates are more excited than we are. Earlier, they were holding yoga sessions on their own. After we saw their enthusiasm, we decided to make more formal arrangements,” Tihar Jail official Sunil Gupta had said.

janchavarie Early Release, India, Inmate Programs

The first group of Wisconsin inmates left prison last week under a state plan to relieve overcrowding by releasing some prisoners early, corrections officials said. Story from the Green Bay Press Gazette.

The Department of Corrections has spent the past three months reviewing hundreds of nonviolent offenders eligible for early parole in exchange for good behavior. Twenty-one were released Tuesday, agency spokesman John Dipko said. None were released from the Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez.

The parolees came from across the state correctional system’s institutions. Their crimes include retail theft, driving while intoxicated, operating a vehicle without consent, forgery, burglary, drug possession and disorderly conduct, Dipko said in an e-mail.

States around the country have turned to early-release programs to alleviate overcrowding. Last year 13 states either created or expanded programs to speed up early release, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Critics say the programs could put the public in danger. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn suspended that state’s early out program in December after The Associated Press revealed the Illinois Department of Corrections was releasing hundreds of inmates too early. The agency had secretly changed a policy that required everyone to spend at least 61 days in prison and was awarding six months’ good-conduct credit as soon as inmates entered prison.

Several of Illinois’ parolees were arrested within weeks of their release for various offenses. “This is a dangerous social experiment doomed to failure,” Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said of Wisconsin’s programs. “These felons are headed back to a community near you.”

Dipko stressed offenders must earn the release with good behavior. “Earned release provides a positive incentive that we know from research can reduce recidivism,” he said.

Prisons are a big business in Wisconsin. The correctional system includes more than 18 institutions and costs more than $1 billion per year.

Overcrowding has been a problem for years. Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch estimated in February that the inmate population stood at more than 22,000. A consultant’s report released last year found Wisconsin’s facilities are decaying. It recommended more than $1.2 billion in upgrades over the next 10 years.

Faced with a $6.6 billion shortfall in the state budget, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle instead proposed releasing some prisoners early to save money and space.

Killers and sex offenders aren’t eligible, but most offenders will be able to shave days off their sentences with good behavior. Convicts including drug dealers and bank robbers can seek early release from the Department of Corrections, a judge or a newly created parole commission.

Inmates with “extraordinary health conditions,” defined as advanced age, infirmity, disability or a need for medical treatment not available behind bars, also can petition for early parole.

Raemisch estimated in February the changes might affect 3,000 inmates. The Corrections Department estimates the early release programs will save about $30 million over the two-year state budget.

janchavarie Early Release, Overcrowding, Wisconsin

Prosecuting attorneys would receive advance warning about the early release of prison inmates under legislation a House committee approved Monday. News reported in the Daily Herald.

As proposed, the Department of Corrections would have to notify the relevant state’s attorneys at least 14 days before an inmate could be released early. State law presently proscribes only that state’s attorneys get “reasonable” notice before an inmate is let out before the scheduled date.

“And it’s my understanding that that led to situations where in fact, 24 hours, 12 hours (or) instantaneous with the release, that these offices were being notified,” said state Rep. Emily McAsey, a Lockport Democrat.

The amendment approved Monday comes just weeks after Gov. Pat Quinn publicly apologized for a secret, money-saving measure that allowed the early release of more than 1,700 inmates – several of whom already are charged with crimes committed after they were let go.

McAsey said prosecutors in the county where the crime occurred and where the prisoner is released, if different, should be notified.

“So we may have a situation where the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case, the inmate went into the Department of Corrections and is serving time in Will County, and in some situations based upon the legislation, the Will County State’s Attorneys Office also would be given notice,” McAsey said.

The amendment approved Monday also will require inmates to serve at least 60 days in the state correctional system before review for early release.

State Rep. Jim Sacia, a Republican from Pecatonica, said he would like to see another addition that would require victims, too, be notified.

The proposal now heads to the full House.

janchavarie Early Release, Illinois

A law intended to save taxpayers $6 million by lopping time off the sentences of Oregon’s nonviolent prisoners has unwittingly opened freedom’s door early to hundreds of violent inmates. News from the Oregonian.

They include Troy Lee Hischar, who fired a bullet so close to his ex-girlfriend’s skull that it clipped off a tuft of hair; Raul Peña-Jimenez, who gave a 16-year-old girl drugs and alcohol before sexually assaulting her; and Joseph Duane Betts, a convicted child molester who exposed himself to two boys.

Nearly 800 of the 2,397 inmates approved for reduced sentences were sent to prison for crimes as serious as robbery, arson and attempted murder or had previous convictions for crimes against people, The Oregonian found in an examination of state corrections data.

The new law, which passed as part of budget cuts by the Legislature, made thieves, drug dealers and other lower-risk prisoners eligible for a 10 percent reduction in their sentences.

But lawmakers acknowledge they left more than a dozen serious crimes off the list of offenses that disqualify inmates from reduced sentences. So prisoners could get extra time off for crimes such as assaulting police officers, sexually abusing children or committing certain kinds of arson or robbery.

“I call it an oversight,” Prozanski says. “Just like any major piece of legislation, we have now realized there are some crimes we intended to include that we are going to include.”

Dozens of prisoners qualified for early release even though they were accused of crimes committed in prison, such as attacking corrections staffers, possessing dangerous weapons and downloading child pornography on a prison computer.

The law also does not consider inmates’ previous histories of violence, and it opens the door to those serving time for multiple offenses during a violent crime. For example, a carjacker who completes a sentence for armed robbery can then win early release on a consecutive sentence for stealing a car.

“They need to repeal this law,” says Dean Gushwa,  Umatilla County’s district attorney. “I can’t believe that they ever intended for this law to shave time off sentences for violent offenders.”

Key architects of the statute, Prozanski and then-Rep. Chip Shields, D-Portland, say the law has generally played out as expected. The average inmate to win a sentence reduction gets out 59 days early, saving taxpayers $84 a day. However, Shields acknowledges, some of them are hardened criminals.

“There are very few saints in prison,” says Shields, now a state senator, “which is why this can’t happen in an easy way.”

Prosecutors and victims rights advocates say the new law has freed violent criminals, clogged court dockets, reopened wounds for crime victims and appears to be a sneaky way of tampering with mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Much more to read on the Oregonian.

janchavarie Early Release, Economic Issues, Oregon

Hundreds of inmates are scheduled to be released from Oregon’s prisons this fall, but Josephine County officials say that they are prepared to handle the influx. Complete story in the Illinois Valley News.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed House Bill 3508, which suspended certain provisions of Measure 57 between February 2010 and January 2012. That measure was passed by voters in November 2008, and was intended to increase prison sentences for persons convicted of certain nonviolent drug, property and identity theft crimes.

An estimated 800 criminals will be released early this fall as a result of HB 3508, and more than 4,000 could be let out throughout the next four years. The early release does not apply to violent criminals like rapists and murderers.

Abe Huntley, Josephine County Community Corrections director, said that at the local level, releases are “just about doubling.”

“In a typical month, we would have five to six releases from prison,” Huntley said. “We’re now seeing 10 to 12.”

Those early releases have kept Karen Caskey plenty busy. She is the founder and president of Welcome Home Oregon, a religious nonprofit prison transition program that helps remove barriers from re-entry into the community. It is funded through private donations and grants.

Between 150 and 170 persons typically are released into Josephine County every year, Caskey said. The passage of HB 3508 won’t alter that figure, she said, but meant that Welcome Home Oregon was saddled with two months’ worth of early releases.

“By the time everything made it through the process, some people had already passed their earned time release dates,” Caskey said. “As soon as the paperwork was filled out, those people were released. In a community like Josephine County, with somewhat limited resources, that put an immediate strain on things.”

Welcome Home Oregon’s duties include conducting a reach-in call for every state prison inmate that returns to Josephine County and developing release plans intended to meet their most basic needs. Caskey said that the sudden increase in releases complicated the program’s ability to keep up with its core functions.

“We were not able to conduct reach-in calls,” she said. “In terms of a successful release plan, which includes housing, food, clothing and the barest necessities in some cases, we were faced with being in reactionary mode.”

Caskey wasn’t alone in feeling overwhelmed by the increased workload. She said that release councilors at the state Dept. of Corrections were “totally trying to play catch-up” due to the changes in policy.

Huntley said HB 3508 “really put pressure on our release officers.” But it also enabled the county to receive its portion of the savings realized from the suspension of Measure 57’s implementation. That figure amounts to $250,000, he said, which will be spent on treatment programs for drug-addicted property offenders.

Such an approach enables community corrections to focus on reducing recidivism, something Huntley said he strongly supports.

“Housing people in prison doesn’t change their behavior, it takes them out of circulation,” he said. “Community Corrections is different in that we provide programs, structure and supervision to change behavior long-term, so we don’t let them out and send them back to the same environment to continue the same operation.”

Caskey said that despite the early rush, the situation has calmed down and is back to normal after a series of short-term adjustments.

“It did make us scramble a little bit, but for the most part, we’ve gotten through that period of time,” Caskey said. “We had a few people who fell through the cracks, but we’ve been able to find them and reach them, and made sure that they ended up with a positive set of goals when they reached the community.

“It was crazy, but it was totally something we were able to handle in a good manner,” she stated.

janchavarie Community Corrections, Early Release, Oregon

The Tennessee Department of Corrections has been asked by Governor Phil Bredesen to cut nine percent, or more than $50 million from its annual budget. Reported by WVLT-TV.

To do so, officials with the department said they’ll likely have to release around 4,000 convicted felons early from their inmate ranks.

“This isn’t scare tactics,” said George Little, commissioner of the Department of Corrections. “This is sort of the tab coming home, and we are going to have to figure out how we are going to make ends meet.”

Gov. Bredesen grilled Commissioner Little on the plan in order to guarantee the state took a serious look at who it let out before they restore their freedom. .

“You are saying those people would be A, non-violent and B, people who are coming to the end of their sentence periods or somethings like that,” asked Gov. Bredesen.

“Yes sir,” replied Little.

Unfortunately the cuts might not end there. Before all is said and done, the state may have to close down one or two prisons.

Most of Tennessee’s 14 state prisons were built within the last 20 years. Two of them are owned privately. Presumably, the oldest prisons would be the facilities most likely to close if needed.

The oldest prisons in the state are as follows:

• Northwest Correctional Complex Annex, Roan Mountain – built in 1986
• Southeastern Tennessee State Regional Correctional Facility, Pikeville – built in 1980
• Charles B. Bass Correctional Complex, Nashville – Main was built in 1979, Annex was built in 1946
• Mark H. Luttrell Correctional Center, Memphis – built in 1976
• Turney Center Industrial Complex, Only and Clifton – Main was built in 1971, Annex was built in 1985

janchavarie Budgets, Early Release, Tennessee

Gov. Quinn Tuesday defended his plan to release up to 1,000 inmates, a step that begins this week and eventually could save the cash-strapped state $5 million a year. As reported in the Chicago Sun Times.

By the end of this week, 62 non-violent offenders who are within a year of their scheduled release dates will be freed in the first wave of Quinn’s early-release initiative.

“We’re going to do this because we do have financial challenges. But at the same time, we’re going to do it in a way that always protects the public,” Quinn said during an appearance in Chicago to announce the opening of a new veterans home.

Quinn said those released will be under “constant electronic monitoring” while on parole, and the governor expressed optimism that none of those being set free early will be a threat to society.

“Hopefully they learned their lessons in jail and won’t repeat their crimes,” Quinn told reporters.

His administration refused to divulge the names of those in the first wave of early releases.

Januari Smith, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections, did not offer a basis under the state Freedom of Information Act to justify withholding the inmates’ identities.

“At this time it’s not being released through my office,” said Smith, who added that local law enforcement agencies have been notified who is being released early.

The administration has said that drug offenders and inmates convicted of non-violent property crimes are among those being set free early. Those with homicide or sex offense convictions are not eligible for early release under Quinn’s plan.

Those sent home early will be required to wear electronic-monitoring ankle bracelets and be assigned to parole agents, with whom they will have to meet at least once a month.

janchavarie Budgets, Early Release, IL Chicago

Canyon County considers a May election after Tuesday’s jail bond defeat; authorities worry about crime, and consequences with no teeth. The failure last week of a bond measure to pay for a new Canyon County jail leaves officials stymied on how to deal with overcrowding — and with a lawsuit-sparked limit on the number of inmates the jail can house. One alternative: sentence criminals to the Sheriff’s Inmate Labor Detail, like this one cleaning up trash at the Canyon County public shooting range. Complete details in the Idaho Statesman.

Local officials have long lamented the overcrowding at Canyon County’s jail. But now that the prisoner population has been capped to ward off a civil-rights lawsuit, local police and court leaders are equally worried about the toll from keeping the jail uncrowded.

“We’re letting people out of jail I really wish could be kept in jail,” said Caldwell police Chief Chris Allgood. “And most people with misdemeanors don’t even go to jail in the first place, because there’s no room.

“I believe the people who regularly commit crimes will realize they won’t be going to jail, and the deterrent will go away,” Allgood said. “Our crime rate could go back up.”

Police issue tickets or book and release nonviolent offenders who otherwise would go directly to jail. Prosecutors are seeking, and judges are granting, varied alternative sentences for crimes that earlier would have landed the perpetrators behind bars.

“My perception is, everyone is frustrated that Canyon County’s brand of justice can’t be enforced any more because the jail can’t hold the people,” County Prosecutor John Bujak said Friday, three days after voters defeated a $46 million bond measure to build a new, much bigger jail.

County leaders are considering putting the jail issue back on the ballot, possibly in May. But even if the bond had passed Tuesday, it would have taken at least two years to get the new jail up and running.

And in the meantime, the county must abide by an agreement it forged with the American Civil Liberties Union to keep the jail population within state standards. The August pact, prompted by a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions, means no more than 296 inmates in a structure that has held as many as twice that number in recent years. About 60 more can be kept in the adjacent 1940s-era jail, now known as “the annex.”

As a result of the inmate cap, local law enforcement agencies have signed agreements with the county not to jail most misdemeanor offenders.

“We’ll still take people to jail for anything violent – domestic violence, violation of protection orders,” Allgood said. “The jail has worked very well with us to take the people we bring in. They may have to make room somewhere else.”

Report continues on the Idaho Statesman.

janchavarie Early Release, ID Canyon County, Idaho, Overcrowding, Sentencing

Faulty projections about how much money the prisoner early-release plan could save may force Colorado DOC to consider other budget-cutting measures, including slashing corrections programs and staff, officials say.  Reported by the Denver Post.

“It doesn’t appear to be working,” said state Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, referring to Gov. Bill Ritter’s plan to cut $19 million from the budget by releasing thousands of prisoners on parole up to six months early. “Their assumptions were bad, or something.” Lambert, a member of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said the issue should be addressed when the committee meets in November and December. JBC chairwoman Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, said the state may have to go back and make more cuts … “This isn’t something we necessarily want to do,” Keller said. “We have to make hard choices.”

The proposal to slash $19 million from the Colorado Department of Correction’s budget this year is tied directly to the number of inmates released early. State officials estimated that over the two years of the program, 8,003 inmates will be eligible for early release. They initially projected that the parole board would deny 20 percent of the early-release cases, leaving about 6,400 who could be released. But Parole Board chairman David Michaud said the board has rejected about 80 percent, including 149 sex offenders. If that rate continues, 1,600 inmates would get early releases in two years. “I’m sure there would be an impact on savings,” DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said.

The early-release initiative, announced Aug. 18, is part of a plan to fill a $318 million state budget gap. Sanguinetti said the DOC will now look at other cost-cutting options. “It would be up to the governor’s office.” Lambert said the DOC may be able to find cost savings in other parts of its budget without putting the safety of residents in jeopardy … Lambert said the DOC could reduce the budget by cutting staff, sending inmates to less costly private prisons or cutting programs. “We have some serious questions we need to ask them about this.” Michaud said other options for the DOC to save money include granting early parole to hundreds of illegal immigrants and to prisoners who also have been convicted of crimes in other states. The illegal immigrants could then be deported and the dual offenders could be sent to the other states to begin serving sentences there, he said. “Are there other avenues for savings?” Michaud said. “I think so.”

jakking Colorado, Early Release, Economic Issues

Illinois Department of Corrections Director Michael Randle knows the risks of and concerns with letting about 1,000 inmates walk early out of state prisons in the next few weeks. But for Randle, who took over the prison system this summer, it’s the start of a long process of trying to balance cutting costs and taking in only those offenders who really need to be locked up – without risking public safety. Reported by The Journal Star.

“We’ve been very thoughtful and very cautious in this whole process,” Randle told The State Journal-Register’s editorial board Wednesday in a meeting on his early release plan. Within the next month, about 1,000 nonviolent offenders will be put on electronic monitoring, tracked at all times and required to be in close contact with parole agents. Randle says he understands the apprehension from the public and criticism from prison workers and parole workers about safety risks. And he says he can’t promise one of those offenders won’t commit another crime. But he stresses that every precaution is being taken to avoid that. The agency could have let thousands of inmates go early under state law, Randle says, but limited it to 1,000 with more safeguards. No violent criminals or those who have committed crimes against people or parole violations will go home early.

The move will help the department save about $5 million a year, although savings this year will be less because it’s being done a few months into the budget year and there’s a cost to implementing the electronic monitoring system. Randle hopes the process gets lawmakers, judges and prison officials thinking harder about who really needs to be locked away. Right now, he says, 47 percent of the prison population spends less than six months in prison, with jail time served and other credits cutting down sentences. Corrections doesn’t have the time to get those nonviolent drug offenders into treatment plans, so they’re better off being treated locally, he said. Randle pointed to a new law approved earlier this year that puts more focus on boosting local treatment, evaluation and education. “We think they could be better managed,” Randle said. “You get better outcomes, and it’s cheaper to deal with those offenders locally.”

Randle, who came to Illinois from the Ohio system, said he’s getting used to dealing with budget issues facing his department, especially overtime that cost the agency $60 million last year. The director says three new classes of cadets will help ease that burden, as will a layoffs plan that could fill 350 positions in prisons with the highest overtime costs through transfers. That layoffs plan is on hold after a southern Illinois judge last month blocked it, and Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration plans to appeal that ruling. “Overtime is and will continue to be a major challenge for this department,” Randle said.

Randle says Quinn’s office has given the latitude needed to implement new policies and isn’t interfering with his work, although he says they work closely together on budget and other issues. Randle expects state senators will confirm him in the role in their fall veto session that starts next week. “Everybody seems to be comfortable with how things are going in the agency,” Randle said.

Randle says he’s also starting work on a long-range plan that could lead to prison closures by reducing crime and the need for 28 state prisons. He says that will take patience and buy-in from policymakers and the communities affected – something that can’t be done in a quick period of time. He said recent efforts under the previous administration of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to close Stateville and Pontiac prisons were bound to cause an uproar because of the quick timing. “I think people will get it,” Randle said. “You’ve just got to give them time.”

jakking Early Release, Economic Issues, Illinois

Washington state’s prison system is downsizing. Already nearly 300 positions inside the prisons have been eliminated. Another 200 community corrections jobs are about to be cut. But the budget savings don’t come easily. KPLU’s Austin Jenkins reports.

In order to close a 9-billion dollar budget hole over the next two years, Washington lawmakers cut the prison system by 134-million dollars. That means the agency must reduce the number of parolees it supervises by 9-thousand offenders. And, says Secretary of Corrections Eldon Vail, the department can’t send as many parole violators back to jail. “So one out of four people who used to go to jail because they violated their conditions of community supervision will now go to electronic home monitoring.”

But Vail says deciding who gets put on home monitoring or dropped from supervision altogether isn’t easy – especially when public safety is on the line. Now the Governor has asked the Department to study what an additional two percent budget cut might look like. It doesn’t sound like much, but Vail says it would require drastic across-the-board reductions: like knocking sixty days off every inmate’s sentence and releasing every inmate 30-days before that sentence is up.

jakking Budgets, Early Release, Economic Issues, Washington

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is planning to release 1,000 inmates from prisons across Illinois the next several months in an effort to save money, according to the Chicago Tribune.

An Illinois Department of Corrections prisons spokeswoman said only “low-level, non-violent” offenders who are in the last year of their sentence will qualify for early release and will be fitted with electronic monitoring devices. Officials with the corrections agency and the Quinn administration declined to provide specifics after announcing the plan late this afternoon. Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said the bulk of those to be released and placed on supervised parole will be drug and property crime offenders. The move is estimated to save the agency about $5 million a year, Smith said, though Quinn is giving corrections an extra $2 million to monitor those who are released. The release of prisoners is another symptom of the state’s dire fiscal situation, and is coupled with Quinn’s plan to layoff approximately 1,000 prison workers.

The department will layoff 419 workers effective at month’s end. Meanwhile, Quinn gave the department an extra $2 million to help divert offenders from state prisons. That money will go toward drug treatment and other community-based alternatives in an effort to reduce the number of people who receive short prison sentences. Prison officials say 47 percent of offenders released from custody each year serve six months or less behind bars. Another $2 million will be used to monitor the 1,000 inmates facing release, including assigning each a parole officer and providing drug treatment and other rehabilitative programs. In a statement, Quinn said the changes are focused on “protecting the public while also modernizing and improving the state’s correctional system” …

Prison reform advocates said releasing non-violent offenders close to the end of their sentences will free up valuable resources to allow prison officials to focus on rehabilitative programming for those with longer sentences, and in turn reduce the rate of inmates who often return to jail. “We should be using tax dollars to wisely to be locking people up who present a physical threat to the community,” said Hanke Gratteau, executive director of the John Howard Association and a former Tribune managing editor. “But to just lock people up to punish them without programming doesn’t make any sense. If you take these people out of the system, you free up money to focus on helping people get jobs, go to school and set them on a better path.”

The money comes out of a $1.2 billion discretionary fund lawmakers gave Quinn to use as he sees fit to boost funding for state agencies. Quinn also tapped his discretionary fund earlier this week to help restore $16 million in funding for probation services after they were slashed by 44 percent – from $65.1 million last year to $36.5 million this year. The additional money came after Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fitzgerald warned the budget cuts were threatening public safety.

The state currently houses approximately 46,000 prisoners.

jakking Budgets, Early Release, Economic Issues, Illinois

Jeffrey Woods, warden of the Hiawatha Correctional Facility here at the eastern end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was vacationing on Lake Huron when his cellphone rang on July 1. The message from his boss: Hiawatha, which had been slated to shut down in October as part of a sweeping downsizing of the state’s prison system, would now have to close by Aug. 7. That meant he had just five weeks to ship out 1,100 inmates and 207 staff.  Reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“I stopped sleeping” after that, says Mr. Woods, who kept a to-do list by his bed and wrote down new tasks when he was jolted awake in the middle of the night.

The scramble to empty Hiawatha prison is part of a rapid shift in thinking about how many people should be locked up in the U.S., and for what crimes. For three decades, state and local governments built and filled jails to make good on promises to get tough on crime. Now, the recession and collapsing budgets are forcing an about face. Prisons are one of the biggest single line items in many state budgets, in part because nearly five times as many people are now behind bars as in the 1970s. From California to New York, officials are now closing penitentiaries and releasing inmates early. At least 26 states have cut corrections spending in fiscal year 2010, and at least 17 are closing prisons or reducing their inmate populations, according to the Vera Institute on Justice, a criminal-justice reform organization in New York.

The problem is especially acute in Michigan. Inmates here on average serve 127% of their court-ordered minimum sentences, well beyond the sentences of inmates in other states that offer parole, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. The state last year spent $2 billion on prisons, and one third of all state employees work for the department of corrections, which is among the highest percentage in the nation. With the collapse of the auto industry, the pressure to pare these costs is high.

Earlier this year, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm expanded the parole and clemency board from 10 members to 15 and announced the state’s prison population of 48,000 would be cut by 4,000 inmates. Seven correctional facilities have closed so far this year, including Hiawatha; the state has announced it will shutter another four. At least one of those four might remain open as Michigan considers accepting detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and prisoners from other states. Officials from the federal government recently toured a maximum-security state prison in Standish, Mich., as a possible new home for prisoners held at Guantanamo.

But Hiawatha didn’t get such a reprieve. That is why on the morning of July 28, Warden Woods was in his office at 7 a.m. poring over closure plans. Hiawatha, a so-called secure level-one prison, held everyone from burglars to second-degree murderers. Outside Mr. Woods’s office, 40 inmates, each wearing arm and leg restraints, boarded a bus with dark-tinted windows headed 200 miles away to another prison where they would serve out the rest of their sentences. More buses and vans would be rolling later in the day, some carrying inmates as far away as Marquette Branch Prison, more than four hours west of here. Before inmates could be moved, staff had to consider details like where their co-defendants were located. In some cases, prisoners had testified against co-defendants, or vice versa, and there was bad blood. Gang affiliations also had to be taken into account; wardens didn’t want rival gang members ending up in the same place, or worse, cell block. Medical needs and escape histories were factored in, too.

In his office, behind the heavy, sliding security bars that mark the entrance to the inside of the facility, deputy warden Duncan MacLaren was fielding calls for linens, desks and floor fans from the facilities that were taking Hiawatha’s inmates. Some of the 16 facilities were also asking that beds, mattresses and lockers be sent before the inmates. Between calls, Mr. MacLaren played the role of therapist to Hiawatha’s staff. He counseled employees who were worried about making it on reduced pay since several of them were being demoted as a result of job transfers. He was in the same boat, demoted to an assistant deputy warden at another prison …

The president of the local chapter of the union representing the officers, [Officer Al] Pennell had also been inundated with calls and inquiries from guards being transferred. Nine officers from Hiawatha would lose their jobs once the prison closed. Although many were transferring to other prisons located on the same 7,200-acre site, there were still concerns over a lack of familiarity with those prisons — their operations, layouts, schedules. Some questioned whether they would be able to take vacations they had put in for before the news broke that Hiawatha was closing.

There was little talk among the inmates as they walked past, many of them glowering at the officers. Mr. Pennell says he tells friends to keep a close watch over their kids. “We know what we’re letting go. We see all the files,” he says, referring to the inmates throughout the system who are being released early. The decisions about whom to parole are made 250 miles away in Lansing, where the Michigan Parole Board occupies the third floor of the Department of Corrections headquarters. Without a quick reduction in the prison population, prisons and camps can’t be shut down. Of Hiawatha’s 1,100 inmates, 25 were paroled under the recent push to get prisoners out of the system faster.

Parole board member Miguel Berrios was one of the people responsible for thinning the prison’s ranks. On the afternoon of July 29, he sat in his office eating microwaveable soup. He had just finished interviewing an inmate at another prison, one with mental issues who sexually assaulted a small child. It was Mr. Berrios’s 20th hearing of the day. Once, parole board officials had to visit prisons in person before deciding to release an inmate. Now, hearings are done via video conference. Most interviews last 15 to 20 minutes, although some end quickly because inmates figure it is no use. His questions for inmates are geared towards getting them to take responsibility for their crimes. He also wants to know if a prisoner has availed himself of the various programs inside. For people who have been turned down for parole before, he asks questions like, “You’ve been inside 10 years beyond your early release date. Why is that?” …

The volume of parole interviews has climbed from a rate of about 400 to 500 a week last year to as many as 1,200 a week this year, says Charles Sinclair, the parole board administrator. Parole approvals in July were up 36% over the same time in 2008. Critics say the rush to parole prisoners could lead to mistakes. It is “a risky strategy, no question. I don’t think it’s a very good plan,” says Michigan State Sen. Wayne Kuipers, who chairs the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Kuipers says Michigan historically has struggled with a poor recidivism rate, and that within 18 to 24 months of their release, 62% of parolees reoffend. He says the state has been testing some new re-entry programs for released inmates and he would rather see how successful those are before increasing paroles.

Mr. Sinclair of the parole board says new risk assessments, including one which can predict the likelihood that sex offender will re-offend, give board members more confidence. “I am 100% positive we’re doing the right thing,” says Patricia Caruso, director of Michigan’s Department of Corrections, of both the push for parole and the reentry programs. “Every dollar spent on corrections is a dollar not spent on education.” But, she says, she also lives in fear that a parolee will victimize someone and commit a new crime. “I can guarantee something bad will happen. Parolees, like you and I, are human beings and have free will,” she says. “I know something bad will happen and I’m going to own it when it does. I say the rosary several times a day.”

Back at Hiawatha on July 30, the furniture breakdown and turnstile departures continued as beds were disassembled, lockers moved and living areas emptied. The 10 open bays in each housing unit were initially built to house four men each in a dormitory style setting, meaning no doors and no privacy. That number had climbed as high as eight per bay over the years. With just a few days to have the prison clear of inmates, there were still 420 prisoners left to be transferred. The night shift was rousting the mornings’ travelers out of bed at 3:45 a.m. Another group of 40 men showered, ate breakfast, then headed back to their unit for the last head count they would have at Hiawatha. By 6 a.m. they’d be on a bus. When everyone was gone, only the buildings would remain: The state hasn’t yet decided on Hiawatha’s future.

jakking Early Release, Economic Issues, Michigan

Colorado officials plan to release roughly 15 percent of the state’s 23,000 prisoners early to help slash millions of dollars from the state budget, according to the AP.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti says budget cuts that took effect Tuesday call for the release of 3,500 inmates in Colorado prisons during the next two years. The move is expected to save about $45 million during the next two years. An additional 2,600 parolees will be released early from parole.

Prisoners within six months of their mandatory release date will be eligible to get out early. Those eligible for early release from parole have to have served at least half of their supervised term and been meeting the conditions of their release.

jakking Colorado, Early Release, Economic Issues, Parole

The following opinion piece by Jeanne Woodward and Matt Powers was published in the Sacramento Bee this morning:

Although the recent budget deal reached in Sacramento included a $1.2 billion cut to corrections, legislators haven’t yet faced the hard part: determining how exactly those cuts will be made. Democrats have promised to hammer out such a plan later this month. Now is the time to put the old maxims and myths aside and implement the policy changes needed to protect Californians and the fiscal health of the state.

Republicans say that they cannot approve cuts to prison spending that include the early release of inmates, saying this would be unfair and hurtful to victims. We do not doubt the sincerity of such concerns, but the truth is that our current criminal justice practices in California are costly and ineffective, and do not serve public safety as they should. Nor have legislators adequately addressed the trade-offs and how these negatively affect public safety. Take as an example the recent cuts to education, when we know that the more education young people receive, the less likely they are to be involved in crime, victimization and incarceration.

As the debate to cut prison spending heats up this month, the danger is that politics as usual will lead Sacramento to ignore this bigger-picture understanding of public safety. Criminal justice should stop being painted as law enforcement and conservatives on one side and liberals and correctional researchers on the other. There is nothing further from the truth. We are all interested in public safety. No one wants to be victimized by crime, and law enforcement officials and conservatives all over this state understand that we cannot arrest or incarcerate our way out of this problem. It is too costly and ineffective.

If we are truly interested in public safety, we must understand the great myth. It is a myth that the more people you incarcerate, the safer your communities are. As crime rates have fallen all across the country, study after study reveals that states that have implemented treatment and alternatives to incarceration have experienced greater reductions in crime and costs than states that have simply put more people behind bars for longer.

The state of New York, for example, experienced an 8 percent decrease in its prison population in 1995-2005 by boosting reliance on more cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, including drug treatment and community-based services. At the same time, the state recorded a large decrease in all crime categories, ranging from 43 percent for property crimes to a 47 percent drop in the homicide rate.

California has also had a reduction in crime rates – from 32 percent for property crimes to a 38 percent drop in the homicide rate in the same time period – but that drop has been accompanied by a whopping 28 percent jump in the prison population. Meanwhile, despite our reliance on prisons and incarceration as a response to crime, California continues to have the highest recidivism rate in the nation. California is now an example of what not to do.

A recent Northwestern Law study, “Controlling Corrections Costs in Illinois,” advises that, in deciding how to resolve corrections’ impact on the budget crisis, “the choice lies not between ‘left’ or ‘right’ but between East or West.” The author of this study urges Illinois to follow New York, not California, in developing criminal justice policy.

Fiscally responsible public safety, then, is not a liberal (left) issue, nor a conservative (right) one. It is not a Republican issue nor a Democrat one. It is a question of efficacy.

We must have criminal justice policies that hold people accountable for change. We must recognize that often the most effective criminal justice policy is treatment, community programs and community supervision. We must move our funding from prisons to community programs for non-serious, nonviolent offenders. This approach is cheaper and more effective in reducing victimization in our communities.

Violent offenders should go to state prison. These offenders must be held accountable to participate in treatment and refrain from gang activity before they are released. Now violent offenders are released when their time is finished even if they have continued criminal behavior inside our prisons.

We should not fear the release of 27,000 carefully selected, ill and petty offenders as a way of reducing the budget. We should fear continuing the broken, expensive correctional practices of today. California must stop being an example of what not to do. We should again be a state that invests in our children through education – not funding a prison system that gives us little in return.

If our legislators really care about crime victims, then we must follow the example of New York. Sacramento must establish policies that reflect a concern for Californians and public safety. The future of this state depends on it. Let us invest in our communities and see a return by reducing incarceration, crime and the recidivism rates through a criminal justice strategy that works.

Jeanne Woodford is the former director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and former warden at San Quentin; Matt Powers is a retired deputy chief of the Sacramento Police Department.

jakking California, Corrections History, Corrections Reform, Early Release, Economic Issues, Gangs (STGs), New York

Fresno County CA Sheriff Margaret Mims is warning that she’ll probably have to let more inmates out of jail early because of budget cuts.

Mims said Wednesday that with the layoffs of 35 correctional officers scheduled for Aug. 24, she’ll have to close part of the Fresno County Jail.   She didn’t estimate how many inmates may have to released early because some factors are hard to predict, such as arrests and jail bookings.

A federal consent decree says the county can release inmates early when any part of the jail reaches 90 percent of capacity and must release inmates early when any part of the jail reaches capacity.  As a result of the decree, the jail already is releasing some inmates early because of overcrowding.

jakking Budgets, CA Fresno City, California, Early Release, Economic Issues