State government has promised to chip in $26 million for a new jail in Calaveras County and $80 million for a jail expansion in San Joaquin County. So what could go wrong?

Well, for one thing, state budget cuts to the prison system.

The state plans to come up with money for projects authorized under AB900, a law passed in 2008, by selling lease revenue bonds. Unlike traditional lease revenue bonds where the property financed is a money maker, the “lease” in this case involves a rent payment of tax dollars from one state agency to another.

The State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is supposed to pay rent to the State Public Works Board for use of the jail facilities. If it doesn’t, the Public Works Board is obligated to find someone else to pay the rent. In the event of a state default on particular bonds, the county that built the jail would be given the first opportunity to pay the rent. If the county government couldn’t or wouldn’t pay it, then it would face the prospect of having a building in the middle of its law enforcement complex leased to some other entity, possibly a private company in the prison business.

The lease-revenue arrangement, and its potential pitfalls, have come as news to some county officials.

“I thought these were general obligation bonds of the state,” Calaveras County Supervisor Tom Tryon said during a July 27 meeting of the Board of Supervisors. “If they come to foreclose on the jail, what happens to our $32 million?” Tryon asked, referring to the money from a local bond measure county voters approved in 2007.

The local money in Calaveras is going to an 80-bed jail dormitory and to a Sheriff’s Department administrative building next to the planned main 160-bed jail building. A specially carved parcel that includes only the main 160-bed jail serves as security for the lease-revenue bonds. So the county would keep the administration building and the dormitory even in the event of a default.

Calaveras County Counsel Jim Jones said county officials were concerned enough about the possibility of a state default jeopardizing the main jail that county officials tried to negotiate changes in the language of the jail funding contract with the state.

He said state officials were unwilling to make the changes because they believe the lease-revenue arrangement is necessary to attract investors willing to buy the bonds.

There are significant differences between general obligation bonds and lease-revenue bonds. General obligation bonds in California must get a two-thirds approval from voters. They cost the least in interest because they are backed by the full faith of the state government.

Lease-revenue bonds were traditionally used to finance things such as electric utility plants, water treatment plants or toll bridges that would generate the money needed to pay the debt. By using lease-revenue financing, state officials avoid the need to ask voter approval but will have to pay higher interest rates, and therefore more tax dollars, for the state’s $7.4 billion in borrowing for AB900. That program is building both prison and jail capacity around the state.

Another danger to the jail financing is that California’s battered credit rating and budget deadlock could make it difficult to sell AB900 bonds.

Yet state officials remain confident that they will be able to both sell the bonds and pay them off.

“You can’t say with any certainty there is no risk,” said Robert Takeshita, deputy director of the California Corrections Standards Authority. “But then you have to look at the history. There has never been a default in the state of California.”

And county officials are for the most part resigned to the fact that they need the state funding if they are to build a bigger jail.

“We do have concerns, and we hope it doesn’t happen,” San Joaquin County Director of Facilities Management Gabe Karam said of the risk the state could default on the bonds. “But there is too much at stake here. It is $80 million from the state to build the jail here. How can you say no to that?”

Al Segalla, president of the Calaveras County Taxpayers Association, said that if the general public hasn’t objected so far to the funding mechanism, its high costs, and its risks, that’s because few people understand it.

“This multilayered leasing is really confusing to the public and to me. It is almost like a fraud or a scheme to avoid public accountability,” Segalla said.

Calaveras County has finished its design for the jail and is scheduled to begin construction late this year, finishing the job by December 2012.

San Joaquin County is going slower, Karam said, and doesn’t anticipate starting construction on its expansion until mid-2012. By then, he said, local officials may know more about whether investors are willing to buy AB900 bonds and whether California’s elected leaders can stabilize state finances.

“We have two years to know more about the state of the economy in California,” Karam said.

jchev Budgets, California, Jail and Prison Construction

Gov. Pat Quinn is promising to cut almost $42 million from the Department of Corrections, without layoffs. The governor says it can be done by reducing overtime, which ballooned from $20 million in 2008 to $68 million in 2009. “I believe that we’ll be able, through efficient deployment of personnel, to reduce the overtime costs in the agency,” he said. “It won’t be easy, but it’ll be a basic mission.” News from the Illinois Radio Network.

AFSCME, the union that represents prison guards, says it would be cheaper if the state hired more guards.

State Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), the Republican candidate for governor, says the Department of Corrections has too many politically connected middle managers, and too few front-line workers.

The overall Corrections budget is $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, threatened budget cuts of $32 million at the state police, which would have resulted in the layoff of 460 troopers and the closing of five district headquarters, have been prevented. The governor has signed S.B. 3695, which adds fees of $1 to $15 to any conviction. That will raise $23 million for the state police.

jchev Budgets, Illinois

Top state officials are being tight-lipped about budget cuts looming over the state’s prison system. Last week, Gov. Pat Quinn announced the Illinois Department of Corrections budget would be cut by $41.9 million as part of a $1.4 billion package of spending reductions throughout state government. News in The Pantagraph.

Although the cuts won’t result in layoffs or prison closures, it remains unclear how the reductions will be made as part of Quinn’s attempt to juggle the state’s massive financial problems.

In budget documents distributed last week, the administration said the cuts “will be addressed through better management of overtime costs and other operational efficiencies.”

Corrections’ spokeswoman Sharyn Elman did not provide details of what exactly that means.

In a written statement, Elman said, “The department is currently formulating its FY 2011 management plan with the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget.”

Overtime costs within the prison system have been steadily rising in recent years because of understaffing within the $1.1 billion agency.

In 2007, the department paid out nearly $20 million to prison guards in overtime costs. That figure jumped to an estimated $68 million last year. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union estimates it might be cheaper to simply hire more employees.

Elman said the agency is reviewing a directive issued by Quinn last week that calls for a series of belt-tightening maneuvers designed to keep the state afloat.

For example, Quinn wants cutbacks in vehicle use, employee travel and printing.

But, in the case of overtime, Quinn says reductions should not apply to employees who are in labor unions. Most of the overtime costs in the prison system are tied to unionized guards having to work double shifts because of understaffing.

Although Quinn had wanted lawmakers to approve a tax hike and allow him to borrow money to pay down a huge backlog of unpaid bills, they did neither.

On Tuesday, Quinn told reporters in Chicago he doesn’t expect lawmakers to take up budget issues until after the Nov. 2 election, leaving him to juggle a $13 billion deficit on his own.

“The General Assembly doesn’t have a lot of fortitude when it comes to raising revenue or making cuts,” Quinn said. “The General Assembly doesn’t want to do anything very challenging. They don’t want to put their fingerprints on any cuts.”

jchev Budgets, Economic Issues, Illinois

Oregon lawmakers are looking up and down for ways to mitigate across-the-board budget cuts expected soon. House Speaker Dave Hunt now says it’s “highly likely” the legislature will meet in special session at some point. Story from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Right now Kulongoski is reviewing a list of nine percent cuts proposed by state agencies to deal with a half-billion dollar budget shortfall.

Those cuts would likely go into effect July 1st if the governor signs off on them.

Kulongoski can only make across-the-board cuts. And he’s already asked lawmakers to add money back to the Department of Corrections in order to keep three prisons open.

Democratic House Speaker Dave Hunt says a special session could also help restore money to fund state troopers, day care subsidies and K-12 education.

Dave Hunt: “In none of those cases will we be adding back to fill the entire hole. But I think there is a way to strategically add back portions in each of those that will ameliorate the worst of the cuts.”

Hunt says the extent to which lawmakers can do that hinges largely on whether Congress approves more bailout money for states.

Lawmakers rejected a call for an immediate special session. They said they wanted more time to mull their options.

jchev Budgets, Economic Issues, Oregon

Funding of $69.3 million over the next four years will ensure there are enough prison beds to cope with the rising prison population, Corrections Minister Judith Collins says. An additional 2270 prison beds will be needed at New Zealand prisons by 2019 due to forecast growth of more than 1200 prisoners and the decommissioning of 1055 existing prison beds. Story from Voxy News.

Budget funding of $24.0 million over the next four years will progress planning for a new prison at Wiri in South Auckland, which the Government intends to be designed, built and operated under a public-private partnership (PPP).

Another $45.3 million over the next four years will be used for an additional 245 beds and associated infrastructure at Mt Eden Prison. The new beds are forecast to be in service by December 2012.

“This Government will ensure the Department of Corrections has the money to plan and build the extra beds needed to keep pace with prisoner numbers,” Ms Collins says.

The PPP prison will have about 1000 beds and is expected to be in service by December 2014, subject to consents and the successful completion of an open tender process.

The $24.0 million will help fund development of the Wiri Prison PPP stage two business case, development of the expression of interest and request for proposal, and completing the tender process – including commercial negotiations and contract finalisation.

“To have a world-class corrections system, we need exposure to world-class innovation and expertise,” Ms Collins says.

“A custodial PPP is an opportunity to inject new ideas and new innovations into the corrections sector to enhance public safety, improve rehabilitation and lower costs.

“International experience suggests building a new prison at Wiri using a public-private partnership will offer savings of between 10 and 20 per cent over conventional methods over the 25 to 35-year life of the proposed contract.”

“Rehabilitation remains a priority for the Government. The Corrections Department will fund from its baseline over the next four years $11.2 million of operating costs required to increase the number of prisoners learning literacy, numeracy and work-based skills.

jchev Budgets, New Zealand

A few years ago, Kansas lawmakers decided to shake up the state’s corrections budget. They poured millions of dollars into community programs intended to rehabilitate offenders, help them find jobs and keep them out of prison. The changes, passed in 2007, reaped almost immediate awards. Report from Stateline.org.

Overall recidivism rates in the state declined. The number of parolees who violated the terms of their release plummeted. Kansas was able to postpone construction of new prisons and, last year, lawmakers actually closed four prison facilities. With a push from U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, Congress soon funded a new national grant program patterned after what the state had accomplished.

The recession, however, has hit Kansas’ corrections budget hard. Now, budget cuts are threatening to undo the progress that generated national acclaim for the state just a few short years ago. Kansas lawmakers have slashed funding for substance-abuse treatment slots at the heart of the state’s community corrections program. Group living facilities for offenders have closed. And, this year, the corrections budget included a noticeable new line item: One of the prisons shuttered last year will re-open, driven in part by an uptick in the number of people who break the conditions of their release, such as missing an appointment with a probation officer or testing positive for drugs.

The recession, and the drain it’s put on state budgets, has produced similar quandaries in many of the 28 legislatures that have wrapped up their sessions for 2010. The trend in corrections this year is much the same as it was in 2009 — the first year in a long time that state spending on prisons actually went down. Lawmakers are still searching for savings anywhere they can find them.

As cuts have become the norm, corrections directors are being forced to choose among a variety of difficult choices as they try to stay within the budget limits lawmakers have given them. Among the most common moves: laying off or furloughing workers, double-bunking prisoners in overcrowded facilities and eliminating educational or substance-abuse programs that inmates attend while behind bars.

In many cases, corrections officials say, the budget reductions can be enormously counterproductive. An unbalanced ratio of prisoners to guards, for example, can lead to dangerous conditions for correctional officers and inmates alike. Eliminating treatment slots can make inmates more likely to return to crime once they leave prison.

Economic Aggravations
In Kansas, the bad economy isn’t just resulting in budget cuts for corrections. The tough job market also is intensifying the strain on those released from prison — which can increase the chances that some will return to crime. Already, the state finds itself 120 prisoners over capacity. “We don’t have the programs and services in place in order to keep these people from being returned to prison,” says Bill Miskell, a spokesman with the state corrections department.

It’s not that Kansas lawmakers don’t value what they accomplished in 2007 or don’t strive to keep it up, Miskell stresses. It’s that budget shortfalls in Kansas have become so severe that they are touching all operations of state government — even those with proven results. “The money simply doesn’t exist to begin to restore those programs,” Miskell says.

The same is true in Oklahoma. “We have no drug treatment programs at medium security or above (facilities),” says Justin Jones, director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. “We eliminated all sex offender treatment, even though it was mandated by statute. We have reduced our staffing to below 75 percent of what is authorized.”

More than most states, Oklahoma is an example in austerity. The Department of Corrections has absorbed a 10-percent cut in the current fiscal year, and Jones is bracing for additional cuts of up to 7.5 percent for the fiscal year that begins in July. What other states only now are slashing from their prison budgets, Jones says, Oklahoma cut years ago. It is one of very few states, for example, to double-bunk its death-row inmates, and even the tiny portion of the corrections budget that pays for inmate programs — as opposed to employee salaries and other operational costs — has been cut by 50 percent, according to Jones.

In New Jersey, which has among the largest budget deficits in the nation, the head of the state corrections department recently outlined the steps he would have to take to make ends meet. The cuts range from more double-bunking to the most mundane details of daily prison life: Inmates’ work boots will be replaced by cheaper sneakers.

State lawmakers, meanwhile, are realizing that some prison budget cuts they have approved can be counterproductive from a political point of view. California, Illinois and Oregon each have tried to thin their prison populations — and cut costs — by allowing thousands of inmates to shave time off their sentences through earned-time credits and other forms of accelerated release. But lawmakers in all three states came under intense political pressure this year amid a public outcry over the releases, which were portrayed as a threat to public safety. Illinois and Oregon put a stop to the releases, and California is likely to do so soon.

Trying to Slow Prison Growth
Not all states are cutting prison spending. Some are trying to prevent funding reductions to programs they recognize can help keep the prison population, and taxpayer costs, down. In Texas — which, like Kansas, shifted resources from prison beds to rehabilitation slots in 2007 — legislative leaders have exempted inmate treatment programs from planned budget cuts, The Dallas Morning News reported earlier this month.

Other states are hoping to replicate the success that Kansas has seen by reducing the number of people who return to prison each year. In New Hampshire, for example, lawmakers have sent Governor John Lynch a bill that would emulate the general outlines of Kansas’ 2007 reforms by investing more in substance abuse and mental health treatment. Lynch supports the bill.

Some states have passed sentencing changes that aim to reduce the number of people sent to prison in the first place. Colorado reduced criminal penalties for possession and use of certain drugs, while increasing penalties for more serious criminals who sell drugs to minors. The savings wrought from an expected decline in prisoners will be applied to substance-abuse treatment. The move should allow the state “to get ahead of the game” by tackling recidivism, says Claire Levy, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

South Carolina’s state Senate unanimously passed a sentencing reform bill that, like Colorado, strikes a compromise by reducing criminal penalties for some low-level offenders while increasing punishment for violent offenses. The measure, which is backed by Republican Governor Mark Sanford and is awaiting a vote in the House of Representatives, would decrease the prison population and save the state hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years.

Changes like those in Colorado, New Hampshire and South Carolina are longer-term fixes to a problem that is being addressed in the short term by deep spending cuts — as many corrections directors, prison guards and parole officers can attest. But they nevertheless can have a real impact on prison populations and budgets in the future.

jchev Budgets, Economic Issues

It’s projected to save Missouri taxpayers millions of dollars and reduce the prison population. But a bill passed by the state senate Friday could have just the opposite effect on counties. News from KSPR ABC.

“It’s not something we can just turn off. We have to continue to operate the jail.” Often well over capacity.

More than 100 extra inmates have been squeezed into the Greene County jail during its peak summer months. With a budget reducing annually the jail trims a little more fat every year.

“We had a food service company but now we’re using inmate labor to produce meals,” explains Major Kevin Spaulding with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.

In fact meals are the only place officials say you’ll find any meat. The budget has been cut to the bare bones. And a new bill passed by the senate and headed to the house could make the problem worse.

It would reduce the state prison population by 2,000 by giving that many less serious felons alternative sentences from drug court and probation to incarceration elsewhere.

Elsewhere is the Greene County Jail and county jails across the state.

“At some point you have to stop- there’s just none left,” says Spaulding, refering to the county’s financial crunch.

Legislators are already considering lowering the reimbursement rate to counties for housing state prisoners; now they may send more for less.

The state wants to add half the money it would save to the general revenue fund, then divide the rest between the Department of Corrections, Missouri’s circuit courts, and a fund set up to help county jails house inmates.

jchev Budgets, County-State Issues, Missouri

The ripple effect of a down economy is hitting our prisons.
On Friday, the Idaho Department of Corrections announced they’ll be eliminating 24 positions. The announcement comes at a time when prison officials expect the inmate population to go up. Reported by KTVB.

“The fact of the matter is that revenue is down,” said Brent Reinke, the director of the Idaho Department of Corrections. Reinke said to balance the state budget, these 24 positions must be eliminated.

The prison is faced with having to cut $3.1 million for its fiscal 2011 budget. The cuts will come from the food service area, supervisors and a deputy chief position.

Reinke said the prison was careful not to layoff those who work directly with inmates or parolees. “We need to be vary careful we stay true to our mission of community safety,” said Reinke. “So we’ve gone to the middle management area within the department, and that’s where we are making these cuts.”

But what concerns many at the prison are the cuts made to programs that help inmates once they’re released. Those community-based programs help the mentally ill and treat others for substance abuse.

Reinke is afraid with cuts already made to those programs, the prison population could rise — and the Department said the state’s prisons are almost full right now.

“It puts people at risk and we’re liable to see an increase in our population that will exceed the 4.3 percent we have projected,” said Reinke.

But there are resources that could help. “We have a 432-bed treatment facility opening July 1,” Reinke said. “That’s going to be a tremendous help for us.”

The facility is the Correctional Alternative Placement Program (CAPP). According to lawmakers, the facility will help reduce recidivism and costly crime. Lawmakers said CAPP will save taxpayers around $29,000 per offender.

Reinke serves on the Interagency Committee on Substance Abuse Prevention. He said the committee was mindful of the cuts to health and welfare during the legislative session. He said the committee is now carefully monitoring the after-effect.

“We know working with state government, we’re going to have our peaks and our valleys,” Reinke said. “This happens to be a pretty serious valley.”

Right now, there are 7,500 inmates in Idaho prisons. IDOC also supervises about 13,800 probationers and parolees.

The elimination of these 24 staff positions will bring the total number of positions cut over the past two years to 102.

jchev Budgets, Idaho

The Harrison County Sheriff’s Department recently shipped all of its state prisoners out of the jail and back to the Indiana Department of Corrections because, as Capt. Eric Fischer reported to the board of commissioners last week, the jail was overcrowded. News from the Corydon Democrat.

This seems strange, since the jail has consistently been overcrowded or well-above capacity for some time, and, in fact, still is.

The jail’s capacity is 152 prisoners, and, after the state violators left, it now houses approximately 165.

Housing state prisoners is strictly voluntary but is something the county has done for some time. Each state prisoner brings in about $36 per day to the county. The money goes directly into the county’s general fund, where it can be requested by any county government department or agency and approved by, first, the commissioners and then the county council.

Over time, housing state prisoners can be quite lucrative for the county.

Sheriff G. Michael Deatrick said, in 2007, while defending the use of overtime in the jail, that housing state prisoners brings in about $450,000 per year.

But, for now, it seems that money will no longer be available for the county, which is a shame, since it was always a point of pride for the jail and sheriff’s department, not to mention a large amount of cash for the county to spend on any department.

The housing of state prisoners was often a way for council members to justify approving additional appropriations for the department; now, sheriff’s department representatives won’t have that luxury when they step before the board of commissioners or council to ask for funding.

This funding is especially needed in the current economic climate, with schools dropping staff all across the state and every department feeling the pinch.

The jail likely could function better with less inmates, but if it has managed with the extra prisoners in the past, why not continue to try to make it work?

If at all possible, the sheriff’s department should take advantage of the opportunity to house the prisoners and bring in some extra cash.

The county definitely could use the money, but, maybe even more importantly, positive vibes out of the sheriff’s department are needed now more than ever.

jchev Budgets, IN Harrison County, Overcrowding

With county budgets trimmed to the bone, a major medical expense at the county jail could be an unexpected drain of county finances. That’s also true in Coshocton County, where Jail Administrator Lt. Jim McDonald has had to become a little more creative with his budget. Report in the Coshocton Tribune.

McDonald has been able to work with physicians to reduce the cost of medications provided to inmates over the past year by about $10,000. It helps that inmates with money in their commissary account make a $4 co-pay for their meds, and $7 co-pay for physician calls.

But the cost of care has risen pretty steadily during the past decade, from a low of $65,894.06 in 2003 to $121,819.81 this past year.

By state law, county jails and the handful of city jails are responsible for providing medical care for inmates. While some are able to pass the bill onto private insurance, and some end up releasing a sick inmate to avoid paying the bill, Ohio counties spent at least $38.3 million last year to treat prisoners, according to data collected by CentralOhio.com.

While totals have remained fairly steady the past few years, thanks to a change in state law, the cost per inmate can vary greatly, from $339 in Paulding County to $4,455 in Franklin County.

Some of the disparities are because of differences in recordkeeping; not every county reported the cost of mental health care, for example. Counties also structure their medical care differently. Larger jails have nurses on staff and buy medicine in bulk. Smaller jails will get inmate medications at the local pharmacy and arrange for visits with a local physician.

The Coshocton County Jail contracts with Premier Medical Services for doctor and nurse visits, Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Kobel said.

LOCAL INMATE CARE
“The doctor is scheduled in twice a week or more frequent if needed. The nurse comes in every two to three days to dispense the inmates meds,” Kobel said. “The most frequent medical issues we run into are anxiety, mental issues and drug/alcohol withdrawal.”

Kobel said prescription drugs are filled locally as prescribed by the jail doctor or the inmates’ family doctors.

For other than routine medical check-ups, inmates can and have been transported to the emergency room because of life-threatening events such as chest pains, seizure activity, breathing difficulties and other ailments, Kobel said. Inmates who have dental needs or specialized doctor appointments are handled as necessary.

“The inmates have a right to basic health care/emergency medical treatment while incarcerated,” Kobel said. “We do not deny them these rights.”

NUMBERS, COSTS RISE
Counties house people sentenced to one year or less, or suspects awaiting trial who can’t make bond. And other than emergency rooms, many have no access to health care.

Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Criminal Justice. He frequently hears from county sheriffs and commissioners that the cost of holding inmates is pricey. He called those costs an undue burden for taxpayers, but one that is difficult to fix.

Grendell said some criminals take advantage of their incarceration to get a root canal or other free dental services. Conversely, he said, some sheriffs would rather put a sick inmate back on the street than pay his medical bills.

Putting a monitoring bracelet on an ailing offender is far less expensive than jailing the inmate, something some counties are doing more often, Grendell said.

“If an inmate would be admitted to the hospital or required some type of major medical procedure we often will contact their sentencing judge and ask for a furlough which keeps the county from having to post a guard while the inmate is in the hospital or pay for the procedure,” Kobel said.

But costs remain a problem, even after 2005 legislation went into effect mandating that counties only pay the federal Medicaid reimbursement rate for medical services, Grendell said.

Some counties saw a great decrease. In 2004, Stark County paid $2.3 million for medical services and $1.9 million in 2009. Franklin County paid $9.1 million in 2004, and $8.7 million in 2009. Licking County paid $531,234 in 2004, and $367,760 in 2009.

At least 22 counties are paying more for medical care now than they did in 2004, including Coshocton County. Part of this might be because of rising populations. The county jail has 17 beds, but has housed an average of 50 to 60 inmates on a daily basis each year since 2002, Kobel said.

“The numbers I provided are the average daily head count for our jail,” he said. “That is the total number of people housed in our jail each day over a 12-month period. The state says we can only hold 17, but as you can see we are well over that number each day.”

But the cost increase locally could have been higher if it wasn’t for the legislation.

“Being billed at the Medicaid rate has saved the county a substantial amount of money,” Kobel said.

John Leutz, a senior policy analyst with the Ohio County Commissioners’ Association, said prior to the 2005 legislation some county governments had worked out deals with local hospitals and doctors to provide care at a lower cost.

Many counties charge inmates co-pays, often not as much to recoup costs but as a deterrent from seeking unnecessary care, Leutz said.

“To keep costs down the inmates pay $7 for doctor visits outside of the jail and pay $4 towards the prescriptions. This can only be done if they have money on their commissary books,” Kobel said. “On occasion we run into an inmate that fakes an illness in an attempt to get outside for a little while but we rely on the observations of the corrections officer to make sure everything is legitimate.”

STATE, COUNTY THOUGHTS
Robert Cornwell, executive director for the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, said medical costs are a big problem for cash-strapped sheriff’s offices because medical incidents are entirely unpredictable. An instance of cancer or a heart attack is enough to put a county in the red.

In addition to medical issues that come up, Cornwell said there has been an upswing in the number of people coming into the jails with mental illnesses. Psychotropic drugs are not cheap, he said.

Counties often try to avoid jailing mentally ill individuals and instead will help them get treatment elsewhere, Cornwell said.

Coshocton County Commissioners Curtis Lee, Gary Fischer and Dane Shryock said it is difficult for jail officials to forecast the rise and fall of medical costs and the money needed to pay for them.

“We allocate funds every year for that, but it’s kind of out of our hands and in the hands of the sheriff,” Lee said. “We’re on a limited budget, and you can only hope for things not to happen.”

Shryock agreed. “We give the sheriff an operating budget, that also includes medical costs, to operate the jail,” he said. “If the costs go over and beyond that, we may have to deal with it later.”

When asked by residents why a portion of their tax dollars go to pay for inmate medical costs, when some residents might not have health care coverage, the commissioners said that, too, is out of their hands.

State law requires all jails provide basic medical care “and that’s all you can tell them,” Lee said.

As far as solutions to the budget problems that state of affairs causes, the commissioners demure to the state.

“There’s not any easy way to resolve that one,” Shryock said.

jchev Budgets, Ohio

Idaho prisons are at full capacity and facing a $2.8 million reduction in state funding in the next budget year. The Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) is the third-biggest spending piece of the budget pie, eating up about 9 percent of the general fund budget, close to $150 million. IDOC would also receive more than $20 million in federal and dedicated funds. Most of the reductions will come to state prisons, but not all reductions are open for discussion. Reported in the Idaho Reporter.

“At this time, a release in inmates is not an option,” said Rep. Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell. He worked on the IDOC budget that the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved Wednesday. IDOC Director Brent Reinke had said that releasing 250 inmates immediately could save the state $5 million. Idaho currently has 7,422 inmates in state and private prisons. Current projections show that rising to almost 7,700 by May 2011.

“The fact that we’re at capacity now makes it really difficult,” Reinke said about the proposed budget.

About half of the corrections budget is going to contracts with private companies that the state can’t reduce during difficult economic times. “That makes 44 percent of the total budget, and they’re basically fixed,” said Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson. “That means any holdbacks have to come out of the remaining budget.”

Contracts with the private Idaho Correctional Center in Boise will see a 3 percent increase in the next budget year. Reinke said that contracts can’t change, but that private facilities are cheaper that state prisons. “Their contract rates are so low,” he said. It costs the state $40 per day for an inmate in a private prison, and $57 per day in a state prison. Reinke said IDOC is currently bidding out a new contract for inmates’ medical services, which should save the state money.

Another area of savings will be delaying the opening of new private Correctional Alternative Placement Program (CAPP) facility in Boise. The 400-bed facility specializing in 90-day substance abuse treatment is billed as a cheaper alternative to housing inmates. It was initially scheduled to open in May, then delayed six weeks until mid-June. On Friday, JFAC moved to push that opening back to September. “There’s not a year’s worth of funding,” Reinke said. “I don’t know if we can make it by September.”

Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, spoke against pushing back the opening of CAPP. She said a lack of treatment options is a big obstacle to releasing inmates on parole on time. “The delay of this, I do worry, will only further that problem, and make it less likely that we will release inmates on time,” she said. “A lack of investment in this area will probably cost us more in the long run.” A report from the Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations released Feb. 25 said there are some slowdowns in Idaho’s parole process.

“A delay in education and treatment for inmates can be a delaying factor in parole,” said Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow.

State prisons would see a $6 million reduction, community corrections a $1.3 million reduction, and the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole a $135,000 reduction in the next budget set by JFAC, which starts July 1. Those would be on top of the holdbacks prisons are seeing in the current budget. Private prisons would increase $485,000, costs for placing inmates in county prisons and prisons in Texas and Oklahoma would rise $2.7 million. With the delays, costs for running CAPP would still increase $2.8 million. Bolz said even with the reductions, it’s likely that lawmakers will need to come back next year and find $2 million to $5 million in additional revenues for prisons. He called the budget set by JFAC a “target budget,” that would see some changes in the 2011 legislative session.

jchev Budgets, Idaho, Overcrowding

California will begin to reduce its prison population by about 6,500 inmates over the next year under a state law that takes effect Monday. Story published in The Washington Post.

The bill was signed as part of last year’s state budget package. Under it, early release credits for inmates who complete educational and vocational programs will be expanded, letting more inmates leave prison earlier.

At the same time, the state will stop its monitoring of low-level offenders after their release. That is designed to reduce the number of parolees returned to prison, essentially because the state will not know if they are violating the terms of their parole.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told The Associated Press on Thursday that the law will let parole agents concentrate on more dangerous ex-convicts.

Agents will be responsible for supervising an average of 48 parolees instead of the current 70 because the law ends California’s practice of automatically putting every released convict on three years of parole.

Ex-convicts deemed less dangerous or less likely to commit new crimes will not be monitored at all, although they still can be searched without a warrant.

The reduced caseload will let the state more intensively watch gang members, sex offenders and violent felons, using lessons it learned from its failure to catch Jaycee Dugard’s accused kidnappers, Cate said. Parole agents have been faulted for failing to learn that paroled sex offender Phillip Garrido was hiding the young woman in his backyard for nearly 20 years.

“We’re going back to the time when the parole officer not only has time to be a cop, but add that social worker factor,” Cate said in a telephone interview. “We could see the recidivism rate actually go down in California, so that’s the great hope.”

Groups representing crime victims and the union representing Los Angeles police officers criticized the new law.

“California has decided to begin jeopardizing public safety with no perceivable financial benefit,” said Los Angeles Police Protective League President Paul M. Weber in a statement.

He argued that despite the short-term financial gain, an increase in crime will cost the state and victims more in the long run.

Cate acknowledged some unsupervised ex-felons will inevitably commit serious crimes after their release. But he said residents will be safer in general because parole agents will be able to concentrate on higher-risk parolees.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the law in October. Finance officials estimated Thursday the measure will save the state about $500 million its first full year.

jchev Budgets, California, Overcrowding

The Re-entry Program is crucial to stop the revolving door for prison, but state budget cuts are forcing the Kansas Department of Corrections to cut those programs. “The Re-entry Program and Parole Services are what make our communities safe,” Sharidi Blackwood, Re-entry Program Director, said. News from KTKA.

Blackwood said they’ve had to cut staff and leave positions open, which gives Parole Officers like Donnie Hibler more work and fewer resources to work with. “When we don’t have the resources or the funds the staff to meet all those needs it becomes pretty scary, and it becomes a real safety issue and that is our number one concern,” Blackwood said.

Missy Woodward is a Program Consultant who works with mentally ill prisoners. “A lot of the mental health cases came to us with the shut down of the Topeka State Hospital,” Woodward said.

“The prisons are the new state hospitals now,” Parole Officer Hibler said.

If Missy can’t find the resources, like medication and housing for these mentally ill prisoners, crimes will continue to occur. “It’s going to impact the safety of the community, I hate to say when people get desperate they get desperate,” Woodward said.

Kelli Martinez’s job is to help people coming out of prison find work, but with a failing economy that has made her part of the re-entry program tough, “We see a lot of the jobs that used to be the given, that they could just walk into those aren’t so available now either,” Martinez said.

So with a troubled economy, and cuts to the Kansas Department of Corrections, it leaves many who work with offenders scared what will happen next. “Our biggest concern is safety for the community,” Blackwood said.

The Kansas Department of Corrections staff said they will continue to rely on other community programs for help. They said they have to get creative to get prisoners the help they need.

jchev Budgets, Kansas, Re-Entry

In its final report, the SAGE Commission calls for state government to trade off the high-cost Ely State Prison and Lovelock Correctional Center to a private firm that would build new prisons for the state near Reno and Las Vegas News reported by the Ely News.

The Saving and Government Efficiency Commission offered 44 recommendations to save Nevada money in the final report. Most of the recommendations already have been considered by the Legislature, but a handful, including the prison closure proposals, are new.

The bipartisan commission, created by Gov. Jim Gibbons in June 2008, has met monthly and developed recommendations considered by the governor and the Legislature.

“I am very pleased with our work,” panel Chairman Bruce James, a former U.S. printer, said Thursday. “Government works incrementally. Making big changes is tough to do overnight. The Legislature is going to be hard-pressed to save money in coming years. We think we have made recommendations that they will have to consider.”

During the 2009 Legislature, lawmakers approved changes to the state retirement and health care systems along the lines proposed by the SAGE Commission, saving the state more than $100 million. About half of its early recommendations were approved during the session.

Former Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, a commission member, echoed James’ view that the commission was productive. He said Democrats and Republicans agreed on almost every recommendation.

“A lot of our recommendations were common sense,” he said. “But citizens should be confident that we found there isn’t any gigantic waste in state spending. The state isn’t buying $900 hammers. We didn’t find any horrible inefficiencies that could cure the state’s budget ills.”

As far as trading rural prisons for ones in urban areas, Goldwater said, governors and legislators in the past looked at constructing prisons in rural areas as a way to bolster their economies. “But it costs the state extra money to have rural prisons,” Goldwater said.

In its report, the commission found Ely and Lovelock have higher operational costs and at times cannot find needed employees. Inadequate hospitals exist in the two communities, and offenders are far from courts that handle their appeals.

Other recommendations include:

• The state’s information technology department should come up with a common system for state e-mail and Web sites.
• The Nevada Department of Transportation should consider closing some highway maintenance stations and outsourcing some maintenance responsibilities.

Gibbons praised the commission, and added, “Just as SAGE commissioners did in their work, we hope our elected officials can now set aside their partisan differences to put the public’s interest first.”

James said commissioners could have continued to meet monthly through June but believed they had completed their task so they decided to submit the final report early.

jchev Budgets, Economic Issues, Nevada

Frustrated Board of Corrections members on Friday criticized what they called a lack of interest among lawmakers to fund the state prison system. News reported in the Tulsa World.

The Department of Corrections plans to begin furloughing all of its 4,514 employees starting in March to deal with budget cuts.

Some 119 employees took an early buyout offer as the agency worked to trim its budget, DOC Director Justin Jones said.

And if his budget is further cut by the minimum 7.5 percent he was told to expect in the next fiscal year, Jones said, the Corrections Department also will have to lay off 459 employees.

“That is not crying wolf,” Jones said during a regular Board of Corrections meeting at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center.

The agency also may close some prisons by increasing capacity at others, he said.

State agencies have been told to reduce their budgets as a result of declining revenue.

The cuts had been 5 percent starting in August but rose to 10 percent for December and January. Assuming that the cuts revert to 5 percent in February and stay there until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, the agency will have cut $41 million from a $503 million budget, Jones said.

Since July 1, the Department of Correction has added 709 inmates, DOC chief of operations Ken Klinger said.

The prison system is operating at 100 percent capacity, Jones said.

The board’s suggestions on ways to curb the growing prison population and reduce costs don’t seem to interest lawmakers or state leaders, Corrections Board member David Henneke said.

Board member Robert Rainey said he was “surprised, shocked and dismayed” by the response the agency has gotten from the Legislature.

He said sentencing reform will come only after a federal judicial order requires lawmakers to spend money.

“The Legislature wants to incarcerate low-risk offenders and not pay for it,” Rainey said. “It is shameful. I am embarrassed.”

The Department of Corrections can’t do more with less forever, he said.

“At the end of the day, it is a failure of our leadership,” Rainey said.

Board member Ted Logan said he envisions a scenario in which someone is hurt or killed as a result of the cuts, followed by finger-pointing.

“I hope something gives before it reaches that point,” he said.

jchev Budgets, Oklahoma

For the past 10 years, Randy Bland has held a job that might make some people nervous.He oversees the mill and cabinetry class at Sierra Conservation Center, a program that teaches inmates the basics of the cabinet-making trade. News reported by the Union Democrat.

That’s 27 felons bearing power tools. “I love it,” Bland, 51, said, standing in the kitchen that his wife, Susan, designed and he created in their Sonora home. “It’s a satisfying thing. I’d do it until I retired.”

However, deep cuts in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget mean that this, a graphic design class and a print shop all will be axed from the SCC curriculum by the end of January.

The Department of Corrections saw a $1.2 billion budget cut in 2009, forcing the department to pick certain programs to be reworked or discarded, according to spokeswoman Peggy Bengs.

Adult programs and rehabilitation programs took the brunt of it, as two-thirds of their budgets disappeared. Cutting certain classes, like mill and cabinetry, on a statewide scale saves the department $250 million, Bengs said.

“The state is emphasizing programs that reduce recidivism,” Bengs said. “We’re looking at vocational programs linked to job market demands that take 12 months to complete. Those reduce recidivism by 9 percent.”

The programs that survived budget cuts tended to be those that provide certification on top of satisfying the job market in the area where prisoners spend their parole periods.

The state prioritizes programs that can provide those certificates, Bengs said. Those include the automotive or welding programs, among others.

In Bland’s view, the mill and cabinetry program provides his students not only skills that can be used in a number of areas, but also valuable life skills that prepare people who haven’t had normal social interaction for the workplace.

“It can be tough,” he said. “You have a small shop and a lot of people. Personalities can clash.”

And part of the training is learning to work with people of different races, personality types and backgrounds. Learning a trade teaches them confidence, he said, a commodity a person doesn’t have a lot of when they are released with the stigma of having served time.

Bland created the class using state-mandated curriculum and textbooks, but put a heavy dash of his own hands-on style in to make sure his students learned. Students who had been around longer were put in charge of projects and given a team of less-experienced students to encourage peer teaching, Bland said.

He was there to supervise, answer questions and solve problems, both with the cabinets and between the inmates. He also made sure the shop had what it needed to be a good learning environment.

At this point, he said, the shop is state-of-the-art.

“It’s a wonderful shop, the state has been kind to me,” Bland said. “They put you in there and you make it what it is. You decide what to buy, what kind of machinery and how you run it.”

To get some of the supplies, Bland wrote grants and lobbied for resources.

The happy beneficiaries of the program include not just prisoners, but also budget-weary state and local agencies that need the services the program provides but can’t afford — like the Mi-Wuk-Sugar Pine Fire Protection District.

Fire Chief Randy Miller had a problem. The department needed a new firehouse, but it had a $20,000 budget to create a multi-purpose 1,300-square-foot building.

“You pay for stuff and then you blink your eyes and that budget is gone,” Miller said.

By using Bland’s shop, the fire department only had to pay for the materials needed to make the cabinets for the kitchen, saving a hefty sum of money for quality work, Miller said.

“For what it cost us, there is no way I could get this stuff, no way,” he said. “We had them put a cabinet in that we’ll put a counter top on. When it came back, we had to nudge that thing in there. It fit perfectly.”

Now that the program is ending, Bland is already getting calls for cabinet work in the county. He owned a business, Precision Woodworking, in the area from 1982 to 2000 when he quit to work in the prisons. But he’s not sure if he wants to launch a new business at this point in his life.

He doesn’t have a shop, and the shop at the prison will be dismantled. Equipment that can’t be used by the Education Department as a result of reductions will be given away to other institutions that request the equipment, Bengs said.

“If I’m laid off, I’m going to have to do something,” Bland said. “It’ll be low key.”

jchev Budgets, California, Inmate Programs

Prison officials hope a federal grant to reduce repeat offenses will help the South Dakota Department of Corrections control inmate population growth in a tight budget year. News from the Rapid City Journal.

Gov. Mike Rounds’ proposed 2011 budget is about $1 million lower than the DOC’s request. The agency asked for $108,069,335 based on projected prison numbers through June 2012.

Corrections Secretary Tim Reisch said the $106,982,478 budget forwarded by the governor will be enough to cover prison operations for the next 18 months. That’s dependent in part on controlling recidivism with officers through the federally funded Second Chance/Re-entry program in Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Pierre.

The governor’s budget projects only 157 more inmates in 2011 than 2009. “There isn’t a lot of wiggle room,” Reisch said.

Until 2007, South Dakota’s prison population increased by about 100 prisoners every year. The population dropped in 2007 and 2008.

“We had back-to-back reductions, which is really unprecedented since we’ve been keeping statistics,” Reisch said. “Forever, we’d been going up.”

The drop preceded a national trend. Earlier this month, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the nation’s prison population grew at a slower pace in 2008 than it had for eight years.

In South Dakota, however, the population began to climb again in 2009. As of November, there were 3,387 adult inmates in the state, up 43 from the end of 2008.

If the numbers grow too quickly or unpredictable factors such as high-cost medical procedures for inmates drive up the budget, Reisch might need to ask the Legislature for more money. “There are a lot of things out there that can break the budget,” he said.

The DOC will use $749,749 from the federal government every year for the next three years to pay the Second Chance officers, Reisch said. The new employees will help coordinate the placement of paroled prisoners in jobs, apartments or substance abuse programs.

The extra help could make a difference, according to Tom Cihak, a member of the Board of Pardons and Parole. Parole officers can oversee 60 to 70 parolees at a time.

“It would definitely help to have more people,” Cihak said.

An inmate with a steady job and stable housing situation has a better chance at returning to society as well, he said.

“It’s expensive to house them here, and they do a lot better on the outside if they’re ready to be there,” he said. The tight corrections budget for South Dakota still is more manageable than the situation in some other states.

Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Ohio are looking at sentencing reform to reduce the amount of time prisoners are held. Others have considered early releases for nonviolent offenders.

The last time South Dakota commuted sentences en masse was 1986, when then-Gov. Bill Janklow released 36 people in response to overcrowding.

Reisch doesn’t expect such a move in the near future.

“I could not tell you that we’d never entertain the thought, but the governor’s proposal doesn’t have any early releases,” Reisch said.

jchev Budgets, South Dakota

As of mid-December, the Shawnee County Department of Corrections had spent $141,856 on medications, including $63,869 in psychotropic drugs. News reported by the Topeka-Capital Journal.

The amount of money spent per month has decreased in the past few months, said Brian Cole, deputy director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections. However, at times, the county jail has had one of the highest bills for psychotropic drugs in the Midwest.

Sixteen percent of inmates at the county jail suffer from mental illness, and 45 percent of the money spent in 2009 on medications has been to treat those individuals.

Crisis Intervention Team is a program that Shawnee County began implementing a few years ago to try to divert people with mental illness to community-based treatment facilities instead of jail.

“A jail is not a place to stabilize those with mental illness,” Cole said. “We are not a mental health facility.”

CIT was started after Greg Eilert, 45, who was schizophrenic, was shot and killed by Topeka police in August 2006 while in his car near S.W. 29th and Fairlawn. The shooting was reviewed and found to be justified. “His family became very motivated,” Cole said.

Greg Eilert’s mother and sister often share Greg’s story with officers who are receiving CIT training. About 30 percent of all law enforcement officers in Shawnee County have voluntarily received the training, including corrections officers who work at the jail. “We need to continue to build the pool of officers,” Cole said.

The training has several goals, Cole said, including to ensure officers’ safety, reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and increase collaboration among area agencies.

The training is usually 40 hours long and is offered in Shawnee County at the Topeka Police Department twice per year. The next CIT training is in April.

“Our main focus is to diffuse the situation,” Cole said. “We see the need. Topeka, Kansas, and Shawnee County have a high population of people with severe mental illness.”

Usually people with mental illness who are arrested are arrested for minor crimes, such as trespassing, public intoxication or drug-related offenses, he said. Every year, about 800,000 people with severe mental illness are incarcerated in U.S. jails.

At the Shawnee County Jail, a person is evaluated upon their arrival to find out if he or she has a mental illness. Once identified, the inmate meets with a member of the mental health team, which includes two social workers and a psychologist. David Coleman serves as the mental health team leader for Shawnee County. He has been in his field since 1973, he said.

Although the Shawnee County Department of Corrections oversees the mental health team, Prison Health Services, a company made up of more than 3,800 professionals who work in jails, prisons and juvenile facilities nationwide, oversees medication dispensing and prison health. A registered nurse is on staff 24 hours at the jail.

Medication rounds are conducted in the morning, at noon and at bedtime, said Karen Marsh, PHS health services administrator. Inmates have illnesses ranging from severe depression to schizophrenia. Those with mental illness don’t fare well in the criminal justice system, Cole said. Oftentimes they are exploited or manipulated by other inmates, have difficulty coping and can’t make bail.

A U.S. Justice Department study found that 60 percent of people with mental illness in jail don’t get treatment, Cole said. The Shawnee County Jail works hard to make sure inmates get the help they need, the deputy director said. Statistics show the CIT program is working, Cole said.

Since the third quarter of 2008 through the second quarter of 2009, only one person out of 134 calls to which CIT members responded went to jail.

“We are seeing an improvement,” Cole said. “What I want the public to understand is this is a much-needed resource.”

No money from the Shawnee County Department of Corrections goes into the program, Cole said. Volunteers do all of the training, too.

Topeka Police Chief Ron Miller said the CIT program is very valuable. He said the training is helpful because officers are the ones who have to determine if a person needs to be arrested or treated.

“The key for the police officer is assessing the needs of the person,” Miller said. “It is also key to recognize the need and know how to connect the person to the services they need.”

TOP 5 PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS ADMINISTERED
The top five psychotropic drugs administered by Prison Health Services at the Shawnee County Jail are:

1. Abilify, a medication used as an add-on treatment for depression, as well as for the treatment of schizophrenia and manic episodes.

2. Zyprexa, a medication used for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute manic and mixed episodes of bipolar disorder and maintenance treatment.

3. Seroquel, treats the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

4. Risperdal, used to treat schizophrenia and symptoms of bipolar disorder.

5. Geodon, a medicine for the treatment of acute manic or mixed episodes of bipolar disorder and for schizophrenia.

jchev Budgets, Inmate Health Care, KS Shawnee County

Here’s another person that isn’t all that fond of at least one aspect of Gov. Tim Kaine’s recently introduced budget proposal, as reported in The Washington Post.

Fairfax County Sheriff Stan G. Barry said the outgoing Democratic governor’s plan to rent 1,000 prison beds to other states to raise money is unfair to local sheriffs who are left stuck housing hundreds of state inmates in already crowded local jails waiting to be moved. “I’m very concerned,” he said. “We already have an additional burden.”

The Department of Corrections, the largest agency in the state, with more than 10,000 employees, expects to make up for $20 million in budget cuts by taking in 1,000 inmates from Pennsylvania sometime before February.

Barry said he understands that the state needs the money, but he called Kaine’s plan a “shell game” because the state is simply shifting the burden to local governments. As of last week, he said, the Fairfax jail was housing 135 inmate for the state (out of a total of 1,300).

Last summer, Kaine (D) also proposed accepting out-of-state prisoners, but abruptly halted the plan when sheriffs from the state’s most populous areas of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads objected. Virginia Beach Sheriff Paul J. Lanteigne sued the state.

Virginia pays sheriffs $14 a day to house each state inmate (though the actual cost can be as high as $125) while collecting much more from other states to house their prisoners. The agreement with Pennsylvania will bring in about $62 a day, according to Larry Traylor, a spokesman at the Department of Corrections.

Traylor said his department would probably have to lay off employees or close facilities if not for the out-of-state prisoners. “The current economic downturn has affected all of us and we continue to look for solutions that will benefit the Commonwealth,” he said.

As of last week, the state was housing 309 inmates from Wyoming, the Virgin Islands and from Hawaii, Traylor said. Virginia houses a total of 31,000 inmates at 44 facilities.

Traylor said he’s unaware of any specific concerns by local or regional jails, and that the overall number of state inmates at local jails have been reduced by almost 500 since May 2008. He said about 230 state inmates have actually been transferred back to local jails to rent out otherwise empty beds.

Virginia began housing inmates from other states in 1998 after the state built and expanded a dozen prisons after abolishing parole and enacting longer sentences for certain crimes.

Many human rights groups oppose the practice, arguing that the inmates suffer from a loss of training, rehabilitation and contact with family and friends. They also caution that moving offenders to a prison with new rules and with different types of inmates can lead to violence, as shown by riots in other prisons across the nation after out-of-state prisoners moved in.

Virginia largely abandoned the practice in 2004, saying the space was needed for a growing inmate population, several years after two Connecticut inmates died and human rights groups lodged complaints of excessive force.

Sheriffs have complained for at least three decades about the large number of state inmates in local jails, which are supposed to house defendants awaiting trial and those sentenced for minor crimes. They argue that the more dangerous inmates further crowd their jails and that the jails provide less access to rehabilitative and educational services.

Many sheriffs, including in Fairfax and Arlington counties, have sued the state to force officials to act. State law requires that felons sentenced to at least one year behind bars get transferred from local jails to state prisons within 60 days.

Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell (R) outright opposes Kaine’s proposed tax increase, but he declined to take a position on most of the governor’s proposed budget cuts and other revenues sources except to criticize trims to local law enforcement.

Under Kaine’s budget, sheriffs and local constitutional officiers will lose $270.5 million over the two years and local police will lose $73 million over two years.

jchev Budgets, VA Fairfax County, Virginia

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections is trying to set a construction strategy based on what likely will be conflicting inmate population projections. Story from The Daily Reporter.

The first estimate predicts more inmates and recommends major renovation projects. The second projection, though not yet released, is expected to forecast the opposite.

“It’s one of the struggles we face,” said Earl Fischer, administrator of the department’s Division of Management Services. “We don’t have advance knowledge of what’s coming down the pike and with the fiscal challenges the state faces, we don’t have much flexibility in terms of growth.”

The Corrections Department next year will finish new projections based on legislation designed to reduce inmate populations at state prisons. If those projections show no growth or a decline in the population, Fischer said, the department can request less construction money in future state budgets.

But those projections would contradict a statewide, 10-year facility development plan Madison-based Mead & Hunt Inc. completed earlier this year. That plan recommends, among other things, $142 million worth of renovation work at the Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez. The renovation would add 250 cells to the complex.

“A good deal of the 10-year plan that was done for us was premised on a growing population,” Fischer said. “We’re working with the assumption that sentence reduction will put all plans to increase capacity” on hold.

It still is just an assumption based on inmate-related bills and an early-release provision in the 2009-11 state budget that could reduce the prison population statewide by about 3,000 inmates, said state Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay.

But, he said, there is no guarantee the inmate population will decline. It also is possible, he said, that future legislation could increase the population.

“We’re going to have to watch this carefully,” he said. “There are so many moving parts to this.”

A new governor could bring a new attitude toward prison population or Corrections Department spending, Fischer said, so the numbers the department can work with in 2010 might be meaningless in 2011.

“It would be safer to just go with the higher projections in the Mead & Hunt report,” he said. “But whether the state has the funds to support that is another issue. Right now, no one feels we have the luxury of doing expansions.”

Right now, the department is receiving only a fraction of the money it requests.

In the 2009-11 budget, Fischer said, the department requested about $250 million to finance projects at all of its prisons. The department, he said, received $30 million.

The lack of money, no matter what projections might show, illustrates the problem, Cowles said.

“How do we know we even have the money for the maintenance work they need?” he said. “The next couple budgets are going to be pure misery.”

Former judge state Rep. Fred Kessler, D-Milwaukee, said it behooves the Corrections Department to project a decline in population.

“So many of the decisions I made as a judge were based on what kind of offenders should be put in jail,” he said. “The thing is prisons and jails are self-fulfilling prophecies. The state has the power to control exiting, and now that we have a release mechanism, there are ways of dealing with overcrowding.”

But even without expansion there will be maintenance issues to deal with in Allouez and other prisons. Whether the prisons get that money, Fischer said, is up to lawmakers.

“It’s politics,” he said. “And it’s constantly subject to change.”

jchev Budgets, Wisconsin