The state’s prison population routinely hits 99 percent of capacity, the Board of Corrections was told Wednesday. “We have been over 99 percent in the last 30 days more times than in history,” Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones told the board at its regular monthly meeting at the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft. News from Tulsa World.

As of Aug. 2, state-run prisons were operating at 98.85 percent of capacity with 18,326 offenders, according to a population analysis provided to board members. The 99 percent figure includes contract beds at halfway houses, private prisons and county jails.

Jones said operating at such a high percentage of capacity makes it difficult to transfer inmates among facilities. “If we had to vacate a housing unit, there is no place to go,” he said.

The agency would normally rely on vacant private prison beds, among other options, but it does not have the funds to pay, Jones said.

“Our system is locked up, for lack of a better term,” he said.

State agencies have been cutting budgets as a result of declining state revenue. Jones said the Department of Corrections will ask lawmakers for a supplemental appropriation of up to $40 million to reduce the number of furlough days its employees have to take during the current budget year and to pay for offender growth. The agency is operating at 70.9 percent of its authorized level of correctional officers, Jones said.

Board member David Henneke said he was concerned that the elimination of prison treatment programs due to budget cuts could result in some offenders not being able to perform assignments ordered by the courts.

As a result, they could wind up with longer stays in prison, Henneke said. Jones said the agency has tried to educate judges and the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board about the lack of programs currently available inside the system.

jchev Oklahoma, Overcrowding, Prison Population

The number of inmates held at the Marion County Jail is leveling off after a surge in average daily population last year, county officials said.The increase, in which the number of inmates climbed past 2,600 a day for two months last year, does not signal a return to the county’s chronic problem of jail crowding, county officials said. News and ADP chart from the IndyStar.

They say that the number of inmates dropped sharply at the beginning of this year and that county judges — whose decisions are critical to keeping jail numbers in check — are doing a better job of limiting how long inmates stay in jail.

“I’m not overly concerned that we’re reaching any problems with overcrowding currently,” Superior Court Judge Steven Eichholtz said. “Our recent numbers have been really pretty good.”

The increase came during a period when the Bureau of Justice Statistics studied jail populations nationwide. The study released last week found that the number of inmates held dropped 2.3 percent from 2008 to 2009 — the first decrease since the agency began compiling the jail data in 1982.

But in Marion County, the study found the inmate population jumped 9 percent in 2009. The county’s four pretrial holding facilities — Marion County Jail, Marion County Jail II, the former lockup in the City-County Building and Liberty Hall — held 2,336 inmates on June 30, 2008, but 2,541 inmates on June 30, 2009, according to the study.

Kevin Murray, the lawyer for Sheriff Frank Anderson, said the increase was part of the growing pains associated with a crop of rookie judges.

Marion County elected six new judges to the bench in 2008. Eight sitting judges moved to different courtrooms when those new judges donned their robes in January 2009.

The county’s criminal court judges are key to controlling jail population because they decide who gets locked up and for how long.

“Whenever there’s a transition and you have a lot of new judges coming in, there’s going to be a learning curve,” Murray said. “By the fall, things had settled down.”

The average daily jail population peaked at 2,622 in March 2009 but remained below 2,300 from December through April, according to figures supplied by the Sheriff’s Department. The average daily population for May — the last month for which complete figures are available — was 2,382.

Despite last year’s increase in jail population, The American Civil Liberties Union of Indianapolis, whose 1972 lawsuit brought the jail under federal oversight for 35 years, doesn’t believe crowding has re-emerged as a concern.”We’re not really getting any complaints from Marion County,” said Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU in Indianapolis.

Jail crowding is a politically touchy subject for Marion County, which remained under federal court order to improve jail conditions until U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker closed the case in 2007. For decades, county leaders struggled with how to limit jail population while inmates slept on plastic cots and judges fretted over whether to free inmates who might go on to commit violent crimes.

The county has since built the Arrestee Processing Center, which was designed to eliminate long stays for those accused of minor offenses. The center has a court that operates on nights and weekends, which gives the newly arrested a chance to post bond.

The court also implemented a new bond matrix, which looks at a person’s criminal history, employment and family ties and gives judges a yardstick to help them decide how high they should set a defendant’s bond.

Judge Eichholtz said the county has not returned to the crowded conditions that led to the civil rights complaints in the federal lawsuit.

“We’ve reviewed our bond matrix to make sure people are not being held on high bonds for minor offenses,” Eichholtz said. “The jail numbers have been pretty consistent, but length of stay has gone down consistently for all courts. That means we’re holding more people, but for fewer days.”

Eichholtz likened jail management to monitoring tables at a restaurant or rooms in a hotel.

“It’s all about turnover,” he said. “You always have to be careful, making sure you are evaluating, holding the right people and releasing the right people.”

jchev IN Marion County, Overcrowding, Prison Population

The total state prison population across the nation declined in 2009 for the first time in almost 40 years. The numbers didn’t exactly plummet — less than half a percentage point, or 4,777 fewer inmates than in 2008. The decrease, however, represents a sharp contrast from 1972 to 2008 when state prison populations grew by 708 percent. News from the Tulsa World.

Even with the slight decrease, the number of inmates in state institutions — 1,404,053 — is equivalent to locking up every man, woman and child in Philadelphia.

Last year, 26 states housed fewer inmates than they did the year before, according to a recent report by the Pew Center on the States. Twenty-four states, including Oklahoma, continued to add inmates — some with a vengeance.

As of Dec. 31, Oklahoma had 26,397 inmates, up about 530 inmates from 2008. That 2.1 percent increase might not sound so bad unless you consider that the prison system:

• Is at 99 percent capacity with 1,500 inmates backed up in county jails
• Is down 700 corrections officers
• Is in a state that has a $1.2 billion revenue shortfall going into the new fiscal year beginning July 1

Oklahoma is tough on crime. Its Legislature, in fact, is habitually TOC, in good times and in bad, and especially in election years. As one retired lawmaker put it: “We’ve felonized just about everything but flatulence and I hear that’s coming soon.”

Even with a funding crisis, the drumbeat to felonize more crimes — 26 — and to enhance penalties for existing crimes — 19 more — continued this legislative session.

Board of Corrections member David Henneke recently called the prison population levels “beyond critical.” Board member Robert Rainey complained lawmakers had mostly ignored the board’s suggestions on ways to save money.

Several states,the Pew report aid, have enacted reforms designed to give taxpayers a better return on their public safety dollars. Strategies include:

• Diverting low-level offenders and probation and parole violators from prison
• Strengthening community supervision and re-entry programs
• Accelerating the release of low-risk inmates who complete risk-reduction programs

Oklahoma has adopted some of those policies but not in great enough numbers to make a major difference.

About 90 percent of the offenders we lock up eventually get out and live among us. But the state spends relatively little money treating inmates for addictions or training them for jobs. And, we make it impossible for most felons to find employment when they do get out. So, too many career criminals take up where they left off when released because they have no other skills and drug abusers return to their addictions. It’s a sure-fire combination for keeping the prisons full.

In the past 20 years, corrections costs nationally have quadrupled and account for one of every 15 state general fund discretionary dollars. Corrections represents the second fastest-growing category of state budgets behind Medicaid.

The Pew report, however, found that the public is warming to prison alternatives.

“The public is supportive of using community corrections rather than prison for nonviolent offenders,” authors said. For instance, in a 2007 voter poll, 71 percent of Texas respondents preferred a mandatory intensive treatment program as an alternative to prison, a level of support that increased to 83 percent when respondents were told the diversion of lower-level offenders could help avert $1 billion in new prison costs.

Declining state revenues are starting to make policy leaders realize that the public’s support of incarceration may wane when it’s done on a scale that robs mightily from other state services.

Advances in supervision technology, including GPS monitors, faster drug tests and ATM-like reporting kiosks, offer authorities new technologies to monitor the whereabouts and activities of offenders in the community.

“These capabilities are giving lawmakers, judges and prosecutors greater confidence that they can protect public safety and hold offenders accountable with sanctions other than prison,” Pew authors said. Policy leaders are realizing that they can effectively reduce their prison populations, and save public funds without sacrificing public safety.

“That’s a drastically different policy environment than the one that existed in the 1970s and 1980s, when states decided that building more and more prison cells was the answer to crime,” authors said.

For some offenders incarceration is the appropriate punishment. Other offenders might serve their debt to society through less costly means, freeing up funds for other priorities such as seeing that students are educated, that roads, bridges and other infrastructure are maintained, that the elderly and fragile are protected and that the health care system is adequate.

In punishing lawbreakers it’s important to distinguish between those we fear and those we’re just mad at. We have to prioritize spending. Do we throw Bubba in prison or do we throw grandma out on the street? When we put people behind bars who might be punished through less expensive means, we sometimes end up punishing ourselves.

jchev Alternative Sentencing, Economic Issues, Oklahoma, Overcrowding

Pennsylvania’s four new prisons, set to open in 2013, will be filled past capacity as soon as they open unless officials implement a variety of changes to alleviate the state’s prison overcrowding, Department of Corrections Sec. Jeffrey Beard told lawmakers Tuesday. Reported by The Patriot News.

The inmate count is expected to top 54,000 next month, about 10,500 over current capacity. The state completed the transfers of 2,100 inmates to prisons in Michigan and Virginia last month and construction is set to begin this summer on the new prisons.

Beard offered lawmakers five changes that would not cost money to implement, including sending those with a technical parole violation, a small offense such as missing an appointment, to community-based programs and not back to prison; diverting offenders with short sentences into community corrections facilities; and loosening parole restrictions to allow non-violent offenders to be paroled once they’ve served their minimum sentence.

The changes could save the state at least $110 million after three years, Beard said.

Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday the state has to evaluate its entire system and significantly alter sentencing rules to reserve state prisons for only the most dangerous offenders.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Thomas Caltagirone, D-Berks, said he plans to introduce legislation soon that mirrors two Senate bills, SB 1161 and SB 1299, that would put into law several of the reforms Beard is seeking.

jchev Overcrowding, Pennsylvania

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews says double-bunking in Canadian prisons “is not a big deal” but critics say his plan to impose more cell sharing contradicts the government’s own policy and is bound to breed more penitentiary violence. News from the Vancouver Sun.

More than half of Canada’s 54 federal prisons recently applied to the Correctional Service of Canada to double bunk, according to a Toronto researcher.

The practice requires approval from headquarters because it contradicts a 2001 prison service directive that “single occupancy accommodation is the most desirable and correctionally appropriate method of housing offenders.”

Toews, since assuming the public safety portfolio in January, has spoken in favour of double-bunking as a solution to ease prison overcrowding, which is expected to escalate in coming years as a result of new and pending federal laws to put more people in prison and to keep them there longer.

“It’s not a big deal,” he said last week on Parliament Hill, echoing a sentiment he has expressed several times.

“It’s an absolutely important aspect of facilities, it’s constitutional, it’s legal. Many western democracies do that. There’s nothing inappropriate about that.”

Toews said the government also plans to expand or renovate existing facilities for the time being, rather than build new penitentiaries.

A bill that is expected to have the biggest strain on prisons — by automatically incarcerating offenders convicted of serious drug crimes — will be resurrected today in the House of Commons, after dying when Parliament prorogued in December.

Howard Sapers, Canada’s prison ombudsman, says double-bunking has already increased 50 per cent during the last five years, so that prisons have approval to let 1,300 prisoners share cells — some sleeping in bunk beds and others in cots or mattresses on the floor. That’s 10 per cent of the prison population.

“We know, for reasons of sanity and personal safety, you need some respite, you need some privacy and that doesn’t happen when you’re in double-bunk situations,” he said.

“As double-bunking goes up, you see increased incidents of institutional violence. Correctional centres, when they are filled over capacity, tend to be very noisy and very chaotic. You end up with institutions that look less like correctional centres and more like warehouses.”

Sapers also said prisoners don’t make the best roommates, given that the majority are either mentally ill, drug addicted or belong to criminal gangs.

The plan to increase double-bunking is an about-face from about a decade ago, when the goal of the Correctional Service of Canada was to abolish cell sharing, he said.

Sapers plans to outline the problems of double-bunking in his upcoming annual report, which he must give to the minister by the end of June.

The biggest strain, he said, is on medium- and maximum-security prisons, which are filled to capacity.

jchev Canada, Overcrowding

The Utah Department of Corrections said it may have to release inmates early because of prison overcrowding issues. The prisons at Point of the Mountain and in Gunnison are within 150 beds of maxing out. Within the last two months, 37 inmates have entered the prisons — on top of those who have been paroled. Reported by Fox 13.

“We are inching closer to that maximum capacity,” said Tom Patterson, the executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections.

The Utah State Legislature didn’t fund an expansion of the Gunnison prison. Lawmakers also only gave one-time seed money to fund a parole violator center that would prevent the need to bring inmates back to the prisons for minor offenses. During the legislative session, corrections officials threatened to release more than 200 inmates early if their funding was slashed. The threat was merely delayed, however.

“As we spoke with legislators and leadership, we were very, very plain in our warning,” said Patterson.

Many state lawmakers who deal with the funding were stunned to learn from Fox 13 that inmates would likely be released, figuring they had solved the problem by not slashing the corrections department’s budget. Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, said he knew it was not if, but when, adding that lawmakers grappled with so many funding priorities in a bad budget year.

“Is it going to be popular? Are people going to be comfortable with the ideas of people going home from prison? No,” he said. “But that’s part of keeping a balanced budget and I think people understand that.”

When the prisons hit maximum capacity, likely at the end of this year, state law requires conditions to remain overcrowded for 45 days. During that time, the prison will be required to accept more and more inmates, adding to the problems. Patterson fears what will happen then.

“During that 45 day period, keeping in mind we have no excess beds, we have no ability to move inmates and we have a pressure cooker for both inmates and for staff,” he told Fox 13. “Security issues are at a premium and an opportunity for injury and fatality is really at a height.”

To prepare, Patterson has ordered staffers to be issued vests that help prevent stabbings. The prison SWAT team has also begun training exercises in the event of a riot. Hutchings said funding for the prisons has to be more of a priority.

“We’re not building any new prison pods, we’re not putting any new capacity on the table and as the population of the state continues to grow, we’re still going to have an issue with that,” he said.

Legislators may address corrections funding during the interim session scheduled for mid-May.

jchev Early Release, Overcrowding, Utah

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

California’s prison population declined in 2009 for the third straight year as the number of state prisoners fell nationally for the first time in nearly four decades, according to a new survey from the Pew Center on the States. News reported in the LA Times.

The overall decline was relatively small, 0.4% of roughly 1.4 million state inmates in the nation, but the study’s authors said it is significant because it represents the first year-over-year drop since 1972.

“After so many years on the rise, any size drop is notable,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center’s Public Safety Performance Project. “Most people thought that the prison count was just going to continue up and up and up.”

California reported the greatest absolute drop last year — a reduction of 4,257 prisoners. The continuing decline represents a trend for California, where the number of inmates grew from 76,000 in 1988 to nearly 170,000 today.

The number of incarcerated Californians had surged in the two previous decades, as voters and lawmakers approved tough-on-crime measures such as the “three-strikes” law. The costs of state prisons has soared as well, doubling since 2000.

What changed? “There is not a clear explanation for why California dropped as much as it did,” Gelb said.

One big downward pressure on California’s inmate population is a federal court order to cut the prison population by as many as 40,000 inmates. Another has been the state’s outsized deficits, which has led lawmakers to try to trim money from the corrections system.

Last year, legislators reduced parole supervision for low-level offenders and approved taking up to six weeks off prison terms for inmates who complete rehabilitation programs.

And state corrections and parole officials have tried to slow the revolving door of prisoners who leave lockups only to return months later after violating parole.

“I wouldn’t say it’s any one thing,” said Gordon Hinkle, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Other states reported mixed results. The number of inmates declined in 27 states and grew in 23, according to the Pew study.

Rhode Island reported the greatest percentage population drop, 9.2%; Indiana reported the largest percentage increase, 5.3%.

jchev California, Overcrowding

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

A state Board of Corrections member on Friday called legislative inaction on proposals to reduce the prison population shameful. News in the Tulsa World.

Board member Robert Rainey said the Department of Corrections submitted to lawmakers a list of evidence-based, best-practices suggestions to reduce the prison population and lower incarceration costs.

Fourteen bills were introduced in the current legislative session; only one remained alive after Thursday’s deadline for measures to make it out of their chamber of origin.

“To see these fail out of the starting gate is frustrating,” Rainey said at a Board of Corrections meeting. He said board members might have been naive to believe that the Legislature would be “more productive.”

He said the Department of Corrections has cut to the bone and eliminated programs in the face of required budget reductions and added that he hoped the public and offenders would not be hurt as a result.

“If that happens, it is no one’s fault but the Legislature,” Rainey said. “It is a failure of legislative leadership, and it is shameful.” The agency’s staff levels are 1,411 employees fewer than the authorization of 5,895.

Board member David Henneke said the Department of Corrections can’t continue to lose employees and keep the public safe. “Someone at the Capitol has got to understand we can’t continue the way it is, or someone is going to die,” he said.

Henneke noted that the only measure still alive — Senate Bill 2292 — would create a Drug Offenders Sentencing Task Force. “We are tired of task forces,” he said, adding that such groups spend money and produce no results.

Lawmakers are more worried about campaigning than addressing critical issues, Henneke said. They don’t want to pass measures because they are afraid that doing so will harm their re-election bids, he said.

“It is about time these people started to do what is best for the state of Oklahoma, not what is best for their campaigns,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, said the comments from board members are one more example of growing frustration with a difficult budget year.

“I certainly understand that part,” he said. Coffee said most of the recommendations wouldn’t have affected this year’s budget and that some of the suggestions would threaten public safety.

He said he doesn’t think the agency is making adequate use of private prison beds and halfway houses to reduce costs.

An MGT of America audit of the agency, requested by the Legislature and released in 2008, noted that the state’s standards for putting offenders in community facilities and halfway houses rank “among the most liberal community placement criteria in the nation, allowing some offenders to be placed in a community setting as much as eight years before the end of their sentences.”

jchev Oklahoma, Overcrowding

The number of inmates in England and Wales’ jails should be cut by a third, and the money saved put into community penalties, a report by MPs has said. Report from The BBC.

The cross-party Justice Committee said evidence showed community punishments would have a better chance of cutting re-offending. The committee said a £4.2bn prison building plan was a “costly mistake”. But the Ministry of Justice said its current strategy was working and reoffending rates had been falling.

There are more than 82,000 people in prison in England and Wales, down from a record high of nearly 84,000 in summer 2009. With a major building programme under way, there are likely to be 96,000 prison places by 2014.

But in a detailed and lengthy report, the justice committee says prison should be a last resort, with thousands of criminals dealt with entirely in the community.

It said millions of pounds could be diverted from the prison system into improving local public services that had a more direct affect on cutting offending, including education and drug addiction programmes.

The MPs said: ”We are worried that the government seems to accept the inevitability of a high and rising prison population and remains committed to building larger prisons. We are convinced that prison building on this scale will prove a costly mistake.

”The prison population could be safely capped at current levels and then reduced over a specified period to a safe and manageable level likely to be about two-thirds of the current population.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said prisons were investing in drug treatment, training and education. “We have bolstered community punishments to ensure they are tough, innovative and offer locally based alternatives to custody,” he said. “People who commit serious offences are going to prison for longer and are being rehabilitated – and the rate of re-offending continues to fall.”

The committee said it acknowledged that its proposals to shift funding from prisons to communities were complex – but added reoffending could only be significantly cut if money was put into local authorities best placed to turn around an offender’s life.

Chairman, Sir Alan Beith, said: “Whoever forms the next government, they face a choice between unsustainable ‘business-as-usual’ in the criminal justice system, and making some radical decisions.

“It is the responsibility of governments and Parliament to protect citizens from crime by using the taxes they pay as effectively as possible. And that is not what is happening.

“A demand-led policy of building ever more prison places is being fuelled by political and media pressure for more and longer custodial sentences, diverting resources away from measures which are more likely to prevent future crime.”

jchev Overcrowding, United Kingdom

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.”

jchev Early Release, 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 U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed appeals by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican legislators of a federal court order to reduce the state’s overcrowded prison population by some 40,000 inmates within two years. Reported by Reuters.

The high court’s decision to dismiss the appeals for lack of jurisdiction occurred as part of a long-running legal battle over California’s 33 adult prisons and their often-criticized medical care for inmates.

A panel of three federal judges in August ordered the state’s prison population be reduced in stages over two years to relieve the overcrowding that has caused inadequate medical and mental health care.

California’s prisons have been filled to nearly twice their designed capacity of 80,000, according to the ruling.

The Supreme Court noted the state has come up with a plan to comply with the lower court’s order but the three-judge panel earlier this month put it on hold pending the outcome of the appeals to the high court. With the appeals dismissed, the plan can go forward.

Improving conditions in the nation’s largest state prison system has become a major legal, political and budget issue in view of California’s budget crisis and high unemployment.

jchev California, Overcrowding, Uncategorized

The Italian government on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the country’s prisons and launched a four-point plan to tackle the overcrowding, ANSA news agency reported.

Talking at a press conference attended as well by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said “the plan is without precedent in the history of this Republic.”

“We’re going to eliminate prison overcrowding once and for all without resorting to another round of amnesties,” he added, which would empty prisons by pouring criminals in the society.

Alfano announced that first on the agenda was the construction of 47 new jail annexes to boost the system’s capacity by 21,749 units.

The new cell blocks would cost a total 600 million euros and follow the rebuilding strategy implemented in the earthquake-struck city of L’Aquila, with construction crews working in round-the-clock shifts.

“This is the same scheme that has allowed us to put a roof over the head of everyone who lost their home” in the April 2009 quake, Alfano said.

In addition, between 2011 and 2012 the government would launch a second campaign to build brand-new prisons to accommodate a total of 80,000 inmates, almost twice its current capacity.

To depressurize jails in the meantime, the justice minister promised new legislation allowing home detention for inmates with less than one year to serve on their sentence and probation with community service for anyone sentenced to less than three.

Finally, he promised to hire some 2,000 new guards needed to oversee Italy’s swelling prison population, which hit a post-war high last year of over 65,000 detainees.

Italy’s aging jails, most of which built in the 19th century, were designed to accommodate just 43,000 prisoners.

Experts have blamed the overcrowding for a record 71 prison suicides in 2009 and another four in the first week of January.

“It’s an intolerable situation,” said Berlusconi. “A civilized state can take freedom away from a person who commits a crime, but it cannot take away his dignity or undermine his health,” he added.

“We’ve taken it upon ourselves to find a lasting solution,” he said, an oblique reference to an overwhelmingly unpopular prisoner amnesty enacted in 2006 under ex-premier Romano Prodi’s center-left government.

jchev Italy, Overcrowding

A federal court panel on Tuesday ordered the Schwarzenegger administration to lower California’s prison population by more than 40,000 within two years to lessen overcrowding and improve health care. Reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, a follow up to previous post: Court, CA Governor Dig In Heels.

The three-judge panel said its order, the first to require the administration to meet deadlines for reducing the number of inmates, was compelled by the state’s “long-standing failure to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care.” The panel noted that the state has already proposed to meet the goal by sending fewer minor offenders to prison.

But the panel suspended its order to await the outcome of the state’s U.S. Supreme Court appeal, which argues that the judges have no such authority.

“We will fight any decision that orders early release and endangers public safety,” said Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, Aaron McLear. He said the state expects the Supreme Court to hear its appeal and decide whether judges can issue orders that compel prisoner releases.

A federal judge appointed a receiver to manage the prison health care system in 2006 after concluding that substandard treatment was killing one inmate per week. Last August, the three-judge panel ruled that overcrowding in the 33 prisons, filled to nearly twice their designed capacity of 80,000, was the main reason that medical care violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The panel said a 40,000 reduction in two years was needed to create the conditions for adequate care, found that it could be done safely, and left the details up to the state. After initial resistance, Schwarzenegger submitted a plan in November that relied on a combination of new prison construction, release of some low-level offenders, and changes in state laws and parole policies to send fewer people to prison.

The proposal includes some measures the Legislature has already rejected, such as allowing some elderly or ailing prisoners to finish their sentences in local custody or home confinement, sending criminals to county jail instead of prison for crimes such as drug possession and writing bad checks, and raising the threshold for felony grand theft from $400 to $950.

Administration officials said they would resubmit those proposals to lawmakers. In the meantime, they said, the court could put the measure into effect by ordering prisons to accept only inmates who met the proposed standards – for example, someone who had stolen $950 or more.

jchev California, Overcrowding

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.

jchev Early Release, Overcrowding, Wisconsin

The extent of overcrowding in Irish prisons is highlighted by figures showing almost 400 inmates are sharing cells with at least three other people. Story from the Irish Examiner.

A further 40 prisoners are in cells of five or more people following an increase of more than 10% in the numbers of people in custody over the past 12 months.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern admitted the number of prisoners exceeds capacity, despite significant investment by the Government. “It is quite clear that in some of our prisons, we are operating in excess of our bed capacity at this time,” he said in a written response to a Dáil question.

He said there has been “a consistent increase in the total prisoner population over recent years”.

“The situation is particularly apparent over the past 12 months during which time the total number of persons in custody has increased by 379.”

More than two-thirds of the men in Limerick Prison are sharing cells with another person while a tenth are in cells of more than three people. In Cork Prison, there are 108 people in cells of three or more people, according to Department of Justice Figures.

Mountjoy has some of the worst overcrowding, with at least 50 prisoners in cells of four or more people while 290 are sharing a cell with one other.

The figures do not include prisoners who are being held in special observation cells or rooms designed to accommodate large groups such as “The Grove” in Castlerea Prison where 55 people are held.

Mr Ahern said the Government plans to create an extra 250 prison places in the coming months. But with the prisoner population growing by 379 last year, this is likely to fall well fall short of requirements.

The opening of the separation unit in Mountjoy will provide an additional 50 short-term places and a new block at Wheatfield Prison will provide about 200 places. At the start of December 2009, there were 4,041 prisoners in custody. A review of prisoner population projections is being finalised by the Irish Prison Service. “The outcomes of this review will inform the Irish Prison Service and my department on matters relevant to the prison estate,” said Mr Ahern.

“The Irish Prison Service must accept all prisoners committed by the courts into its custody and does not have the option of refusing committals,” he said.

jchev Ireland, Overcrowding

A smoother process for handling paroles of prison inmates, and possibly easing the population crunch in penal institutions, is the intent of legislation crafted by an interims committee. News reported in The Montgomery Herald.

But the parole idea might not be the lone one advanced by the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority, says a co-chairman, Delegate Dave Perry, D-Fayette.

While Gov. Joe Manchin set up a special task force to look at the crowded conditions in prisons and jails, Perry’s committee decided to commission a separate report, performed by the West Virginia University Law Institute.

A report is due in the committee’s hands at the January interims session, Perry said.

“I won’t know until we see the final report,” he said when asked if additional legislation is contemplated.

Prison overcrowding has been a constant them in recent years, and the situation hasn’t improved. Some lawmakers are talking about expansion of alternative sentencing and reforms in the criminal sentencing code so that non-violent offenders aren’t put behind bars.

Otherwise, some have warned, West Virginia would have no choice but to build a new prison, costing in the neighborhood of $20 million.

One step is being taken in dealing with paroles. Under existing policy, an inmate must have a home plan approved as a requirement for release.

“This necessitates that they could have parole without assuming the family home plan has been approved,” Perry said of the bill approved by his panel this month.

“Under current practice, they have to have a home plan approved prior to being considered. This would expedite the parole process. I think it would make it a more efficient process for those who are eligible.”

Perry said he believes a number of inmates are being held back from release due to the home plan.

Before the 2010 session opens, Perry suggested his committee might draft legislation to impose tougher penalties on sexual offenses behind bars.

Within a five-year stretch, the state was hit with 21 lawsuits involving alleged sexual misconduct in penal institutions.

“Our intention is to have a piece of legislation to address that issue,” Perry said.

Based on data supplied his panel, Perry said it appears the problem is one that demands legislative action.

In a recent interims meeting, Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein said the problems were confined to the Anthony youthful offender facility in Greenbrier County and a women’s prison at Lakin, Mason County. Mount Olive Correctional Complex in Fayette County wasn’t involved.

“We’re very proactive on this,” Rubenstein told the panel. “We have zero tolerance.”

jchev Overcrowding, Parole, West Virginia

Prison crowding that often has Nebraska teetering on the edge of an emergency situation as defined by state law hasn’t convinced many lawmakers that another prison is needed. Reported by the Associated Press in the Beatrice Daily.

The majority of lawmakers who responded to an annual legislative survey from The Associated Press said they didn’t think preparations to build another state prison were necessary, with some saying that alternatives to incarceration should be pursued.

“I don’t think we have to build a new prison and we couldn’t afford it in any event,” said Sen. Pete Pirsch of Omaha, chairman of a legislative task force addressing the issue. A new prison could cost hundreds of millions of dollars for construction and staffing, Pirsch said.

Instead, he said, the state needs to have adequate community-corrections programs for some nonviolent, low-risk offenders and ensure there is prison space for violent criminals.

Community-corrections programs that hinge on intensive, probationary supervision were put in place after Nebraska built a $73 million prison in Tecumseh in 2001 to relieve overcrowding at its other facilities.

But after a big push to implement the programs, critics say, the state hasn’t spent enough money to develop them or created sentencing guidelines so the programs can be used more.

Some experts say lawmakers may have guaranteed the prison population will continue to rise when, earlier this year, they increased penalties for more than a dozen crimes to help curb gun and gang violence, mainly in Omaha.

The prison population has been hovering near a threshold – 140 percent of prison capacity – that allows the governor to declare an emergency and release inmates to decrease overcrowding. Last week, it was at nearly 138 percent.

University of Nebraska at Omaha professor T. Hank Robinson has said the tough-on-crime bill passed by lawmakers could cost the state $7.5 million to $10 million by increasing the prison population and keeping inmates incarcerated for longer periods.

State Sen. Kent Rogert of Tekamah was one of the 22 lawmakers in The Associated Press survey who said the state should not begin preparing to build another prison but said more must be done to boost community programs.

Thirty-four of the Legislature’s 49 senators responded to the survey. Nine said they were unsure whether the state should prepare to build another prison; three said the state should start preparing.

“Nebraska has stiffened penalties on many crimes over the past decade … in contrast to many other states,” Rogert said. “I believe we need more ways to reduce our prison costs by recidivism programs and more community corrections. Juvenile-justice overhaul must happen and must happen soon. Our young people are left out in the cold too often.”

Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala, one of the three senators who said the state should begin preparing to build another prison, suggested the state stop short of a full-blown prison and instead look to a facility that can hold nonviolent offenders, such as the Work Ethic Camp in McCook.

The camp should be “a model to start more facilities placed in rural Nebraska to alleviate overcrowding” in prisons, Schilz said.

The camp isn’t a lockdown facility. About two-thirds of the offenders committed nonviolent felonies and were ordered to spend time at the camp as conditions of their probation.

They attend classes that apply to their offenses and provide labor to government and nonprofit groups.

jchev Jail and Prison Construction, Nebraska, Overcrowding