« CA: Bold View On Health of People Who Are Incarcerated | Main | CO: Ault Citizens Get Their Say on Prison »
November 18, 2006
RI: Prisons Need $13 Million More This Year
The Associated Press
Administrator: prisons need $13M more this year
November 18, 2006. Boston Globe
CRANSTON, R.I. --As the state prison population hits historic highs, the corrections system needs $13 million more this year to pay for increased security and the basic needs of inmates, according to a top Adult Correctional Institutions administrator.
During the last four months, the inmate population has averaged 3,700, highest in the history of the ACI complex in Cranston, according to Ellen Evans Alexander, the ACI's assistant director of administration.
More inmates means increased demands for correctional officers, food, health care and other essential services, Alexander said.
"You have a population that is not incredibly patient," she told The Providence Journal. "Right now, we are holding our own, but we remain concerned."
The need for an extra $12.7 million for the Department of Corrections this fiscal year -- which ends June 30 -- was announced Thursday when state budget analysts revealed an overall $104.8 million budget deficit.
Prison officials had already been allocated $162 million for the fiscal year, an amount based on an average inmate population of 3,370. The daily average for November has been 3,768.
The reasons for the inmate increase are unclear.
Alexander said ACI statistics show a slight rise in the length of sentences imposed in state courts from 1998 to 2006, but nothing that accounts for the recent increase in inmates.
She said the increase can be partly explained by the arrests of ex-convicts who are on probation -- whom judges usually send back to prison for violating probation. About 40 percent of ACI inmates are probation violators and another 18 percent are awaiting court hearings for the violations, Alexander said.
Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, said prison officials need the $13 million because of their own mismanagement, not the prisoner increase.
He said the ACI administration has wasted about $9 million on "expensive experimental programs," such as outside health care for inmates.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/11/18/administrator_prisons_need_13m_more_this_year/
Information from: The Providence Journal, http://www.projo.com/
Posted by lois at November 18, 2006 04:40 PM