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October 09, 2006
WA: Huge Prison Bill on Its Way
Huge prison bill on its way
Extra cash sought to house inmates
JOSEPH TURNER; The News Tribune (WA)
Published: October 8th, 2006 01:00
The Legislature’s get-tough policies on criminals come at a price,and a big part of the bill for throwing so many lawbreakers into prison will come due over the next two years.
Harold Clarke, the secretary of Washington’s Department of Corrections, is asking the governor to increase his budget by $175 million for the next two years, in large part because his staff will have to operate another 2, 000-inmate prison by mid-2008.
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Eastern Washington will be fully
operational by June 30, 2008.
Clarke wants to hire an additional 1,000 employees by mid-2009, which
would give the agency more than 9,000 workers and a two-year budget of almost $1.68 billion.
“The majority our request is pure caseload,” said Randi Warick,
administrator of budget, research and strategic planning for the state prison system. She was referring to the growing numbers of inmates who are expected to be sent to prison over the next two years.
State analysts predict Washington’s prison population will grow from
18,157 inmates today to 20,159 by mid-2009, an increase of 2,002 – enough to fill a prison.
More than half of the new employees that Clarke is asking for, as well as $117 million of the $175 million budget increase, are just to oversee greater numbers of inmates in prison and felons who have been released to the community.
State legislators add to the growth in prison population virtually every year. Each legislative session, they pass laws to crack down on criminals – either by defining new crimes or by meting out longer sentences for existing crimes.
This past session was no exception.
A law that requires mandatory prison time for anyone convicted of a fifth drunken driving offense within a 10-year period is expected to add 344 inmates to the state prison system by June 30, 2009.
Another law punishes sex offenders who fail to register with local
authorities.
That measure will account for an estimated 438 more state prison inmates by mid-2009.
$27,170 per prisoner per year
Lawmakers tried for several years to avoid building a full-fledged prison in Eastern Washington because of its cost – $231 million.
First, they started sending inmates out of state and renting cells in
county jails in Washington.
Today, there are nearly 1,000 Washington inmates serving time in privately run prisons in Minnesota and Arizona.
And an additional 800 state inmates are being housed in county jails all over Washington.
The state pays between $40 and $70 a day for others to house its inmates. That’s less than the $74 a day it costs to keep an inmate in a Washington prison cell.
But when the cost of transporting inmates and prison staff to and from other prisons and jails is factored in, there isn’t much of a savings.
The Legislature also suppressed the growth of its prison population by letting many inmates out early.
Offenders convicted of drug and other nonviolent crimes can get their
prison sentences cut in half.
But the prison population continues to grow, and virtually all 15 of the state prisons in Washington hold more inmates than they were designed to house.
Finally, the Legislature bit the bullet earlier this year and decided to expand Coyote Ridge. That means the Correction Department will need more money to operate the prison.
The average cost of housing one inmate is estimated at $27,170 a year.
Many of the inmates who have been sent out of state will return when
Coyote Ridge opens.
But then the cycle of sending more inmates out of state will resume, and Clarke estimates the state will need still another 2,000-bed prison by 2015 at an estimated cost of more than $250 million.
Money sought for rehab
To avoid building another prison, Clarke is asking the governor for $26 million to pay for an offender re-entry program.
The goal is to better prepare inmates for life after prison so they will be less likely to slide back into a life of crime, which means less likely to be sent back to prison.
Clarke wants more money and more corrections officers to assess inmates when they first get to prison. Do they need more schooling? Do they need training in a trade? Do they need drug treatment?
Much of the $26 million he’s seeking would be used to help more inmates get high school diplomas or help them kick drug habits.
Between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, the courts sent 8,757 criminals into the state prison system. Forty-three percent, or 3,761, had been to prison before.
Clarke’s budget proposal says by reducing the number of returning
criminals, his agency can slow the growth of the prison population and avoid building a $250 million prison in the future.
Clarke’s request will be reviewed by Gov. Chris Gregoire and her budget office.
They’ll decide which parts to forward to the Legislature when she proposes her 2007-09 budget in mid-December.
AMhttp://www.thenewstribune.com/news/government/story/6149637p-5382390c.html
Posted by lois at October 9, 2006 03:12 PM