The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The space crunch only gets worse from there.

By 2016, the prison system will have nearly 6,400 more inmates than beds if no measures are taken to add space or reduce sentences.

Given the time it takes to build prisons, state lawmakers and Gov. Mike Easley again face the prospect of spending tens of millions of dollars in the coming legislative session so the prison system does not become dangerously crowded.

"You can't wait until the last minute to decide what you are going to do," said Boyd Bennett, the prisons director for the N.C. Department of Correction. "It's my belief that it will be an issue that the legislature will need to address."

The lack of space causes other problems. County jails could again see their cells filled with convicted criminals awaiting assignment to a state prison. The crunch also makes it harder for lawmakers to push for tough-on-crime initiatives that are likely to be popular with voters, such as increased penalties for gang activity or child pornography.

"What scares me is we're making new laws every day that are putting more people in jail, and so the population's going up -- I don't see it going down -- and we're going to have to work harder to accommodate them," said state Sen. John Snow, a Cherokee County Democrat and co-chairman of a state budget subcommittee that oversees prison spending. Snow is a former Superior Court judge.

At the same time, the lack of prison space allows lawmakers to consider alternatives that could shave time off some inmates' sentences and could free cells. The N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission has proposed several law changes to achieve that, but lawmakers have not warmed to the suggestions.

Other states, in an attempt to save money during budget crunches, have revised sentencing laws to reduce prison time for drug criminals and nonviolent repeat offenders.

Bennett said correction officials and Easley's budget staff are working on a plan to deal with the lack of cells.

A 10-year capital plan correction officials produced in May would provide space for roughly 7,650 inmates, largely by adding dormitories to existing prisons. Those expansions would cost between $10 million and $20 million per prison, department officials say.

The department also recommends a new 1,000-bed medium-security prison and a new 500-bed minimum-security prison with estimated costs of $63 million and $28 million, respectively.

All told, the plan's price tag comes to roughly $260 million for expansions and the two new prisons. Another $310 million would pay for new health care facilities in four prisons across the state.

Bennett said the department is looking to save money by having inmates perform some labor, which has the added benefit of teaching them a trade.

Nearly all the new construction would be for medium- and minimum-security housing.

Bertie Correctional Institution in Windsor, for example, is a new 1,000-bed maximum-security prison that would add a 500-bed section for medium-custody inmates and a 250-bed section for minimum-security inmates.

The last six prisons that are either built or are under construction are 1,000-cell maximum-security facilities that, at roughly $90 million each, are the most expensive to build.

Some lawmakers have criticized the department and other lawmakers for focusing solely on those types of prisons, especially after prison population projections indicated there were greater needs for less expensive medium and minimum-security housing.

Prison officials now plan to house medium- and maximum-custody inmates at the last maximum-security prison authorized by lawmakers, one that is under construction in Columbus County. It is due to open in 2008.

That proposed conversion, if approved by lawmakers, would allow Columbus to house 500 maximum custody inmates and 1,000 medium-custody inmates.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/525650.html