There had been indications that 2009 was always going to be a tight money year. But the converging housing and credit crises have made the prospects that much bleaker. All across the country, States are facing huge spending cuts to rectify unbalanced budgets – and this time the problem is so severe that normally protected law-and-order budgets are facing significant cuts. Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision.
“Prior to this fiscal crisis, legislators could tinker around the edges – but we’re now well past the tinkering stage,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration. “Many political leaders who weren’t comfortable enough, politically, to do it before can now – under the guise of fiscal responsibility – implement programs and policies that would be win/win situations, saving money and improving corrections,” Mauer said
In California, faced with a projected $42 billion deficit and prison overcrowding that has triggered a federal lawsuit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to eliminate parole for all offenders not convicted of violent or sex-related crimes, reducing the parole population by about 70,000. He also wants to divert more petty criminals to county jails and grant early release to more inmates – steps that could trim the prison population by 15,000 over the next 18 months.
In Kentucky, where the inmate population had been soaring, even some murderers and other violent offenders are benefiting from a temporary cost-saving program that has granted early release to nearly 2,000 inmates. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is proposing early release of about 1,000 inmates. New York Gov. David Paterson wants early release for 1,600 inmates as well as an overhaul of the so-called Rockefeller Drug Laws that impose lengthy mandatory sentences on many nonviolent drug offenders. Policy-makers in Michigan, one of four states that spend more money on prisons than higher education, are awaiting a report later this month from the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center on ways to trim fast-rising corrections costs, likely including sentencing and parole modifications.
“There’s a new openness to taking a look,” said state Sen. Alan Cropsey, a Republican who in the past has questioned some prison-reform proposals. “What we’ll see are changes being made that will have a positive impact four, five, six years down the road.”
Safety remains a potent factor. In California, for example, the state correctional officers’ union contends Schwarzenegger’s proposals will fuel more crime. In Idaho, a combination of budget cuts and prison overcrowding contributed to an uprising Jan. 2 in a former prison workshop that was converted into a temporary cell block. Inmates who engaged in vandalism and arson had been placed there as part of a cost-cutting effort to move other prisoners back to Idaho from more expensive quarters at a private prison in Oklahoma.
In Florida, where prisons are so crowded that the state has acquired tents for possible use to house inmates, officials say 19 new prisons may be needed over the next five years. As an alternative, Corrections Secretary Walter McNeil told lawmakers they should re-evaluate the state’s hard-line sentencing policies and look at ways to help released inmates avoid returning to prison.
As budgetary pressures worsen, some advocacy groups are concerned that spending cuts will target the very programs needed to help inmates avoid re-offending after release – education, vocational and drug-treatment programs.
“The idea that we’d cut programs and then release inmates early is a toxic combination,” said Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship. “Just opening prison doors and letting people out with no preparation – that’s cruel to the offender and dangerous to public.”
The Council of State Government’s Justice Center has been working with 10 states to develop options for curbing prison populations without jeopardizing public safety. Tactics used in Texas and Kansas have included early release for inmates who complete specified programs, more sophisticated community supervision of offenders, and expanded treatment and diversion programs.
“There’s an unprecedented level of interest in this kind of thinking,” said the Justice Center’s director, Michael Thompson. “It’s a combination of fiscal pressure and a certain fatigue of doing the same thing as 20 years ago and getting the same return.”
But before sentencing philosophies can be adjusted and recidivism programs put in place, the economic downturn is having more immediate affects on the system and on its employees.
In Kansas, for example, a juvenile correctional facility in Atchison was shut down; and the Kansas Department of Corrections is shutting down boot camp correctional facilities in Labette County. On Friday, Washington State DOC confirmed they will be making some layoffs. On January 14th WADOC. will be meeting with the Teamsters Union to talk about program cut backs and lay offs. They hope the reduction process will be completed in February or March. WADOC wants to close unit five and either unit one or unit four at the Washington State Penitentiary and temporarily close one unit at the camp at Coyote Ridge. Also all pay raises are being frozen until further notice.
Maine Gov. John Baldacci on Friday unveiled a $6.1 billion budget for the next two years that cuts funding for prisons. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the budget is in the state Department of Corrections. Baldacci proposes closing a 90-bed unit in the state prison in Warren, a 40-bed unit at the prison in Machiasport and a 94-unit bed at the Windham Correctional Center. To save money the budget calls for shipping 118 prisoners out of state. Baldacci said they would be prisoners with little or no family members in Maine, who are serving long sentences. Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson said it costs the state $103 a day per inmate to keep them here, and would be $66 to $70 to keep them out of state. A similar proposal was rejected by lawmakers in 2007, and it could face a tough sell this time around.
In Iowa, the 1.5 percent cut in state spending ordered last month could mean layoffs in the corrections system, but the department director said Friday he hopes to avoid them with a hiring freeze on vacant positions.Iowa Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin told members of the state board of corrections that he cannot guarantee that layoffs are off the table as the department considers ways to meet its obligations under the mandatory cuts. “The goal is to not lay anyone off,” he said. “Will we be successful? I can’t tell you.” The department has stopped hiring and will leave vacant positions unfilled, he said.
In Louisiana, the DOC is one of only two agencies so far that plans layoffs to cut costs. The corrections department intends to lay off 323 of its 6,400 employees, plus dozens of student workers, to help cut $11 million from its $554 million annual budget. Seventy people hired for a new skilled nursing unit for prisoners will be let go because the facility at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel won’t expand as planned.
Citing safety concerns, the Police Benevolent Association, which represents Florida corrections officers, held a news conference in Tallahassee on Friday to speak out against the possible elimination of corrections officers jobs in the budget process.
“Since the last round of cuts, we’ve had two critical incidents in the prisons where a female officer was killed and one was sexually assaulted,” Jim Baiardi with the PBA said. “The staff’s backs are up against the wall.”
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Idaho Department of Correction officials say a decline in the number of state inmates has made room for 130 prisoners to be brought back to the Gem State from Oklahoma. 