For the third year in a row, the county council is supporting legislation that would prohibit judges from sentencing criminals to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility for more than 12 months, said Councilman Phil Andrews (D-Dist. 3). Report by Gazette.net.

Before fiscal 2010, the state reimbursed counties for all inmates held longer than 90 days. That year, the state cut its reimbursement rate to the county by roughly two-thirds, to $45 per day for each inmate held between 12 and 18 months. The state cut all reimbursement payments for those held less than a year.

Statewide, county jail systems have lost more than $25 million since the new reimbursement formula was implemented. Montgomery County lost $3.4 million in fiscal 2010 alone, said Arthur M. Wallenstein, director of the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.

“The bottom line is, the state’s decision not to reimburse the county for holding prisoners who stay longer than 12 months in our jails, costs the county a little over $3 million a year and this is the third year of that,” Andrews said.

The state’s old reimbursement formula paid county facilities based on the actual operating costs of each jail. In Montgomery County, the daily rate had been $141.18 for every inmate, according to Wallenstein. Because the reduced reimbursement rate also applied to fewer individuals, the cut was more painful, Wallenstein said.

The Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds can hold as many as 1,208 inmates. Last week, there were 963 inmates, and at least 25 of them were expected to serve between 12 and 18 months, Wallenstein said.

State law gives Maryland judges the option of sending criminals with sentences between 12 and 18 months to either local or state facilities.

The county’s fiscal 2012 budget for corrections and rehabilitation is $64.26 million, with less than $500,000 projected to come from the state, said Craig Dowd, budget and procurement manager for the department.

Andrews said the cuts endanger the county’s jail rehabilitation programs, which include treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues, cognitive behavioral modification, basic education, life skills and workforce preparation.

“Without state funding, it creates considerable pressures on the system,” Andrews said. “It makes it harder for the jail to run any of their programs.”

“We’re at a particular point in history where prisons are incredibly overcrowded,” Sessions said. “We’re also at a particular point in time in which there’s a potential for real change.”

Sessions is the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Vermont and has been a federal judge in Vermont since 1995. He was nominated by President Barack Obama, but will still need to be confirmed by the Senate, a process that he said can be highly political.   Sessions, who made national headlines in 2002 when he declared the death penalty unconstitutional, is currently a vice chairman of the commission, which sets sentencing policy for the United States and advises Congress and the executive branch on crime policy.

Options other than standard incarceration should be used more to address prison overcrowding, Sessions said. That includes drug treatment courts, placement in home confinement or community confinement, and split sentences in which part of a sentence is served in prison and part is served in the community.

Sessions also hopes to make rehabilitation a higher priority in federal sentences.   “For the last 15 years there’s been little interest in rehabilitation,” Sessions said.   Instead, punishment has been the priority.   “A person commits a crime, and they get X,” he said. “We’re going back to, ‘How do we get these people rehabilitated so when they get out of prison, they’re not a danger?’”

There is a great deal more background in the full article.

The bill proposed by DFL Senator Linda Higgins would cut $78 million from the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Corrections. The bulk of the cuts, $66 million, would come from the Corrections Department.  Because most of the department’s expenses come from housing inmates, Higgins said the only way to save money is by reducing the number of inmates walking into prisons and the amount of time they stay there. Her plan accomplishes that by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for some offenses.  “In the last 10 or 15 years, legislators have imposed all of these mandatory minimums and taken away any discretion that judges have on certain things,” Higgins said. “And all of the research that’s been going around the country on prison systems have found that it has really been a driver in an explosion of costs in a prison system.”

Higgins wants to repeal required minimum sentences for felony drunk drivers, for some drug offenses and for predatory offenders who fail to register with authorities. She said judges should decide the length of sentences … The bill also reduces the length of time all inmates would serve in prison. Currently, offenders have to serve at least two-thirds of their sentence in prison or jail. The bill would shorten it to 60 percent … Higgins said lawmakers have to make changes in light of a tough budget deficit …

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said eliminating mandatory minimum sentences and prison time is a mistake. Even though the bill would apply only to inmates who are sentenced after July 1, Freeman said nearly every inmate already in prison would apply for the reduction. He said courts would force the state to make the change retroactive, meaning further reductions for inmates.  “It doesn’t save any money,” he said. “By the time we’re done in the next two or three years litigating everyone’s sentence again, it’s going to be very expensive and there’s no money in this bill for it.”

The relaxed standards, contained deep within the 2009 state budget, go beyond the much-publicized reforms to the Rockefeller-era drug laws that Gov. David A. Paterson and lawmakers pushed to include in the fiscal plan over the objections of many district attorneys.  The provisions will, according to supporters, encourage more humane treatment of a select number of inmates while, in some cases, making prisons safer. The efforts will also save money and, eventually, help in the years ahead to close expensive facilities that are seeing fewer inmates.

But critics insist that some of  the new standards are open to wide interpretation that will result in the release of still-dangerous inmates.  “It’s a wholesale change in the policies that have led to the most significant drop in the violent crime rate of any state in the nation,” said State Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, a Finger Lakes Republican who until January had served for years as chairman of the Senate’s Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee. “These issues, taken together, will ensure more violent criminals are out on the streets, and that’s going to create tremendous pressur e for law enforcement. It will make our cities less safe,” Nozzolio said.

The major sentencing change involves the Rockefeller drug laws, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for some drug violations and providing judges with more discretion to steer some individuals to treatment instead of prison … The new budget adopted last week [also] permits some inmates to be released on medical parole if approved by a physician and the state Parole Board, a plan originally proposed by Paterson in December. It is the first major change to medical parole laws since 1992, when terminally ill inmates were first allowed to leave prison early. It also recognizes the prison system’s increasingly aging population; the number of inmates older than 55 has risen from 1,500 to more than 3,600 in the last decade … The Paterson administration estimates that 45 individuals now in prison could be released this year. They estimate $2 million in savings this year from the early releases …

The new budget also includes an expansion of the merit-time program that permits early release of eligible inmates, including violent felons. It allows the release of such inmates six months before the completion of their minimum sentence. Not eligible are those convicted of first-degree murder or sex crimes.   The new merit-time effort takes into consideration whether an inmate participated in no less than two years of college programming while in prison and other efforts to reduce recidivism rates, such as enrollment in a state-approved apprenticeship program. Credit can also be given for working as an inmate hospice aide. The inmate’s prison behavior, and even whether they filed a “frivolous” civil lawsuit while in prison, are also considered as factors for the credit.

There is a great deal more detail and background in the Buffalo News article.

It says Oregon’s prison system has about 13,765 inmates, and without the effects of Measure 57, the state’s prison population would grow at an annual rate of 2-3 percent through mid-2010, with growth slowing to less than 1 percent in the outer years of the forecast. With the effects of Measure 57, however, growth will exceed 5 percent through mid-2011, while gradually returning to baseline growth in the later years of the forecast.

Voters passed Measure 57 in November, and it went into effect Jan. 1. A state committee projected Measure 57 would cost $152 million during the 2009-11 budget period. But Oregon’s severe recession will force cutbacks in state programs and services.  Recently, the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office asked state departments to prepare 30 percent reduction plans for the biennium beginning July 1. Departments submitted those plans Friday. For corrections, that meant a proposal that cut $445 million from its $1.5 billion budget.

A 30% reduction in DOC funding would require the Department to

close four minimum-security facilities: Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland, South Fork Forest Camp near Tillamook and Santiam Correctional Institution and Mill Creek Correctional Facility, both in Salem. All are minimum security facilities and collectively hold about 1,400 inmates, many on the verge of release … Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City, Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend, the new Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview, the Oregon State Penitentiary Minimum Facility and the 50-year-old medium-security Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem. Those minimum security facilities can house 1,142 inmates, including 30 women, and Oregon State Correctional Institution is an 880-bed transitional release facility …  and Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras. Deer Ridge is Oregon’s newest prison, having first accepted inmates in 2007. The prison has beds for 644 minimum-security inmates and 1,223 medium-security inmates. Closing it would save $42 million …

And what would happen to the inmates in these prisons?  “That’s a really good question and I don’t have an answer for it yet,” Jeanine Hohn, corrections department communications manager, said.

Calgary MP Jim Prentice, a lawyer and the government’s regional minister, said Friday the proposed changes will be a deterrent to criminals, adding the current system provides offenders with an incentive to remain in remand and pile up credit that ultimately reduces their jail term.  “It’s created a system where there are many sentence delays which actually benefit the accused because they’re getting additional credit for time served in provincial custody,” Prentice said at a press conference at Calgary’s Remand Centre …

It has become standard practice for courts to give offenders double credit for so-called “dead time” in remand centres. The credit is sometimes given because of overcrowding or a lack of programs for inmates.  Inmates have received credit as high as three-for-one.  The proposed legislation would cap the credit for time served to a one-to-one ratio allowing individuals one day of credit for each day spent in custody prior to sentencing. However, it would allow courts to permit a ratio up to 1.5 where circumstances are justified.

Program chief Joe Ingraham’s reputation among probationers is tough love and a genuine desire to have them succeed. Offenders say the program gives them a reason to stay crime free while random tests and visits make them think twice about relapsing.”Being random is where it’s at,” Ingraham said. “Misdemeanor offenders used to languish in the system with no one watching them and were able to commit more crimes and not follow conditions of their probation. But this intense supervision really stops the revolving door” …

He said his program saved nearly $12 million in Washoe County Jail costs last year. The program spares a daily incarceration fee of $84 for 300 to 400 local offenders each day. Participants also pay $40 a month for the supervision. The county’s house arrest program is now a part of DAS, where up to $30,000 in monthly fees are collected from participants.

But the cost savings to the community are even more, said program coordinator Wendy Keller.   “They lose their job when they go to jail,” she said. “When they get out, they’ll be relying on social services and the medical community. Now, they maintain a job and a home and are less likely rely on social services.”  The program also has a low recidivism rate, 5 percent to 10 percent, because offenders are afraid if they violate their probation, such as by using drugs or alcohol, they will get caught in a surprise sting and be sent to jail, Ingraham said. Most of the participants are ex-felons, he said, who don’t want additional incarceration. “This program holds them accountable,” Ingraham said. “We are the teeth of the court order and make sure there is truth in sentencing. The goal is to make them stop criminal activities and be productive citizens. In turn, they become taxpaying citizens who give back to their communities.”

There is a lot more interesting material in the full article at the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The Asheville Citizen-Times published an editorial

Here’s the math: Depending on the security level, it can cost up to nearly $100 million for a new 1,000-cell facility. North Carolina is approaching the end of a prison-building boom, with six large facilities opened since 2003.   Despite that, North Carolina’s prison population is expected to be about 1,000 over the number that can be housed judiciously, and projections estimate that by 2014 the prison population could stand at 46,000 — close to 4,000 beyond projected capacity. Housing a state prisoner costs more than $27,000 a year.   The rest of the equation: North Carolina is facing a budget shortfall of at least $2 billion.  That math, obviously, does not add up  …

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Rep. Carolyn Justus … inquired about having inmates double-bunked, but noted prison officials viewed that measure as a potential security risk. The paper reported Democratic Rep. Alice Bordsen and Sen. Joe Sam Queen … proposed a hard look at programs cutting recidivism and probation revocations. Also in the mix: A call to revamp the structured sentence concept, which in some cases rules out parole …

One potential pitfall that needs to be looked at very, very closely: Cutting programs designed to keep people who could, with a little nudging, be productive citizens instead of life-long wards of the corrections system. Those programs, ranging from juvenile justice programs on to the state’s mental health system, have long been targets of budgetary neglect. Cuts there, or in family services and, yes, in education, often can translate to more spending later in the corrections system …

The challenge for legislators is clear … Rep. Alice Bordsen, D-Alamance, put it as plainly as it gets.  “If you do anything rational you are then soft on crime … (but) you can’t be tough on crime alone. You must also be smart on crime.”

State Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha [Nebraska], who introduced the measure, argued that such a term is akin to a death sentence and doesn’t take into account that juvenile brains are not fully developed to make rational decisions.  Her proposal, Legislative Bill 307, would make the sentence 50 years to life for juveniles who are 16 or 17 when they commit a first-degree murder. Juveniles under 16 would face a sentence of 40 years to life.  The law would not apply to the 24 people now in prison who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. It also would not guarantee parole, just a hearing.

[In Michigan] the youthful-offender parole reform bill (SB 174), which is tied to a bill to end juvenile life-without-parole sentences (SB 173), passed the House last year and was reintroduced this session in the Senate. The bills are now before the Judiciary Committee, which has yet to take action on the legislation.  The measure would allow a parole board, after 10 years, to evaluate the cases of some juvenile offenders who are serving sentences of more than 10 years or serving life sentences or life without parole. Currently, those serving life are eligible for parole after 15 years; those serving life without parole are ineligible.

But passage of either legislation seems slim.

Several [Nebraska] state senators argued that such a change would be getting soft on crime … saying that the criminal justice system already takes into account factors like the age of a killer. Nebraska lawmakers adjourned before voting on whether to advance the bill. Council acknowledged that “it didn’t look good” after the day’s debate.

Michigan State Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt), who serves on the Judiciary Committee, is not in favor of passing the juvenile sentencing bills out of his committee. The lawmaker … noted that the juvenile sentencing package is unlikely to advance through the Judiciary Committee “until someone shows us why it should move.”   Cropsey said that increasing parole review for juveniles serving long sentences and ending life without parole for juveniles is unlikely to reduce the prison population.  “You can talk about it theoretically, but when you start talking about the facts of a case, when you open up a file and look at the victims, you think, ‘This is not a good risk.‘”  Parole boards are unlikely to release people convicted of such horrible crimes, he said, and the governor has the power to commute sentences in rare cases where appropriate.

The debates are covered in articles from the Omaha World-Herald and the Michigan Messenger.

They’re worried because at least half of the $20 million the state gives annually to community-based programs designed to help people like Ferguson find alternative sentencing and treatment options could be cut in Gov. Beverly Perdue’s budget proposal being released later this month. But group leaders and sympathetic lawmakers say now’s the best time to increase spending in these areas.  The advocates argue it makes more sense to spend money on programs and policies that prevent nonviolent offenders from being incarcerated now or as repeat criminals. It costs about $27,300 a year on average to house a state prisoner and tens of millions of dollars to build a new prison.

The state prison population is projected by June 30 to be nearly 1,000 higher than the number of prisoners that can be reasonably incarcerated. By 2014, the prison population could reach 46,000, or 3,700 above the system’s extended capacity, according to the state’s Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission. Although the state has opened six 1,000-bed prisons since 2003, with 2,200 additional beds expected by 2012, “we can’t (build) new beds that quick to meet that demand,” said Bill Stovall, the Department of Correction’s engineering director. “There’s going to have to be a lot of options explored.”

One option to lower projections would be to follow the sentencing commission’s recommendations to adjust the state’s sentencing grid, which sets mandatory minimum and maximum sentences for crimes based on their seriousness and an offender’s past criminal history. The commission’s recommendations in part would result in slightly shorter mandatory sentences and allow more repeat offenders to receive probation for low-grade felonies. These and other grid changes could free up about 4,000 beds over the next 10 years, according to a presentation to lawmakers last week …

A 2007 report by the Governor’s Crime Commission recommended expanding the use of community alternatives as a way to avoid prison overcrowding while reducing recidivism. Expanding the programs will be difficult as Perdue and legislators must work to reduce an estimated $3.6 billion budget gap between projected revenues and expenses for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The report from WRAL has a great deal more detail.