The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The Senate approved the state¹s fiscal 2008 budget by a 29-to-9 vote after an hour and 20 minutes of debate. It was the same $6.99-billion spending plan approved overwhelmingly early Saturday by the House of Representatives during a marathon session spanning 11 hours.

The budget now heads to the governor¹s desk, where it faces a promised veto. But the governor¹s office acknowledges that it does not have enough support in the General Assembly to block a veto override, which requires a three-fifths vote in the House and Senate.

Therefore, the spending plan is expected to become law in the coming weeks.

As a result, an estimated 2,400 children will lose state-subsidized childcare as of July 1. And beginning that same date, all 17-year-olds charged with criminal offenses in Rhode Island will be tried as adults and sent to the Adult Correctional Institutions if sentenced to jail time.

And while the Assembly may address state education financing in the session¹s waning days, Rhode Island communities will receive the same amount of education aid next year that they did this year, according to the current budget. Both chambers approved a spending plan that cuts the 3-percent increase the governor had proposed in January.

³No one is 100-percent happy with this budget,² said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Stephen D. Alves, D-West Warwick, repeating a mantra that has echoed throughout State House hallways for much of the past month. ³The budget crafted by the General Assembly is responsible, responsive, and most of all, realistic.²

The state budget passed by the Assembly closes a fiscal 2008 deficit that was estimated at $200 million earlier in the year and grew by $90 million last month when state officials learned that a massive insurance settlement was tied up in litigation.

The budget passed yesterday also helps the state end the current fiscal year in the black by using $22 million of anticipated tobacco-settlement bonds. Roughly $153 million in tobacco funds also will be used to balance the 2007-¹08 budget, despite Governor Carcieri¹s vocal opposition.

³This budget is a huge disappointment for every Rhode Islander who wants a bright future for their children and grandchildren,² Carcieri said in a statement. ³But it is a huge win for the labor leaders who appear to be in charge of both the House and the Senate.²

The Assembly gave Carcieri some wiggle room to achieve personnel savings next year, but largely ignored his plans to cut 1,000 state jobs and freeze union wage increases. The legislature went a step further regarding the governor¹s recently announced plan to reform state government by privatizing ³every state service that could possibly be performed more efficiently by the private sector.²

The Senate vote upholds a proposal unveiled Friday night that adds a comprehensive set of privatization oversight provisions that Carcieri said amounts to turning ³over the keys of state government to the unions.²

The privatization measure, which also becomes state law as of July 1, requires a series of detailed reports and cost comparisons ³prior to the closure, consolidation or privatization of any state facility, function or program.² It also requires the governor¹s office to report its intentions to the General Assembly and gives ³aggrieved parties² the right to appeal any privatization effort to Superior Court.

The most heated debate in the Senate yesterday was related to privatization.

Digital Extra

Your turn: React to the General Assembly budget
³I am as concerned as I have ever been about the need to address privatization. I have no argument with anyone who feels that privatization is something that needs to be monitored, controlled and dealt with,² said Sen. J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Oversight. ³The question is, however, is this the best approach? In my judgment, it¹s heavy handed and probably would prevent privatization even where it¹s appropriate.²

Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed disagreed.

³This amendment doesn¹t say that if the governor desires, he can¹t lay off 1,000 people. It doesn¹t say he can¹t privatize,² she said. ³What this bill says is before you privatize, you need to provide a fair, objective competitive standard. You can¹t simply lay off people and cause the fear that has been among our employees in the state for the past week. It wasn¹t fair.²

There was also some debate on the move to try 17-year-olds as adults.

During floor debate, Sen. Harold M. Metts proposed an amendment ‹ one of seven introduced altogether ‹ to block the proposal. The Adult Correctional Institutions ³is no place for a teenager,² he said.

Although Metts¹ amendment failed, along with all the rest, the Senate leadership left the door open for reversing the change before it takes effect. Alves said a ³trailer bill² may be introduced this week to bring the age of majority back up to 18, and inscribe other cost-saving measures in the law.

Other items in the budget that drew little mention yesterday would close a series of perceived corporate tax shelters, allow Sunday auto sales from noon to 6 p.m., double the cost of vanity plates, or the so-called ³SUV tax,² which would require owners of vehicles weighing more than two tons to pay higher registration fees.

The Senate debate also ignored creative revenue-enhancing proposals being floated around the State House that may send significant aid to cities and towns in the near future.

Lawmakers from both chambers, lobbyists and the governor¹s spokesman yesterday acknowledged that a proposal is being discussed that would extend the hours of operation at both Twin River and Newport Grand as a way to boost state revenue.

The proposal, according to Rep. Thomas C. Slater, could generate between $25 and $30 million in new state revenue. Slater said he was briefed on the plan by a representative from Twin River in recent weeks.

³It doesn¹t really hurt anybody and with Massachusetts coming closer and closer to a casino, they¹ve got to do something,² he said.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino said he doesn¹t ³conceptually disagree with the idea² of allowing the slot parlors to stay open 24 hours a day. ³People are talking about 24 hours, but I haven¹t seen anything in writing yet,² he said.

Senate President Joseph Montalbano, D-Lincoln, is also open to the idea.

³Will I support that? Yes, I would, because I believe the extended hours would raise significant revenue that we need,² he said.

Supporters of the proposal, which include labor unions, believe that the hours of operation at both facilities could be extended either by passage of a bill before the General Assembly or by a governor¹s order.

Carcieri¹s office has been in contact with Lincoln town officials regarding the plan, according to Jeff Neal, the governor¹s spokesman.

³I very much doubt that Governor Carcieri would even begin to investigate the possibility of extending the hours for Twin River unless he had an explicit request from the Town of Lincoln to do so,² Neal said, adding that Carcieri had received a letter from Lincoln Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond dated Friday indicating only that there were no public safety concerns.

When contacted yesterday, Almond said the town¹s official position on the subject would have to come from the Town Council.

Town Council President Jeremiah T. O¹Grady opposed expanding Twin River¹s hours to 2 a.m. in January. During that debate, he speculated that the park¹s management¹s plan was a round-the-clock operation. But he was more circumspect yesterday.

³My reaction is that at this point nothing has been done,² O¹Grady said. ³I will be prepared to react to the concept if something happens.²

Meanwhile, lawmakers are weighing another revenue-enhancing proposal, to levy a 3.5-percent tax on cable and satellite TV bills. The same package of legislation ‹ withdrawn from Friday¹s House budget debate ‹ would allow cities and towns to charge user fees for fire-alarm master boxes, and bar water authorities from collecting fire-hydrant rental fees from cities and towns.

Robert A. Walsh Jr., executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, said yesterday that interest groups would be busy in the coming days.

³It¹s fair to say that we¹re going to be up here until the last minute trying to figure out if there¹s a way to restore funding to education,² he said. ³We hear a lot of ideas floating around up here.²

With reports from Journal staff writers Elizabeth Gudrais, Katherine Gregg and John Hill

http://www.projo.com/news/content/state_budget_20_06-20-07_6E632CF.37a395b.h
tml#
_________________________________

http://www.projo.com/news/content/prison_reform_06-20-07_J262UBM.34d4c48.htm
l

Providence Journal

Doing time on prison reform
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

By Elizabeth Gudrais

Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE ‹ True to their word, lawmakers are doing something about the size of the state¹s prison population, which continues to set records in terms of the number of inmates and the cost to taxpayers.

The General Assembly is tackling the problem with a spate of bills flying back and forth between the House and the Senate. Lawmakers took votes on three bills yesterday; today, they will consider two more ‹ one of which was just introduced yesterday.

Legislative committees held hearings on many prison-related bills in March and April, but held them for further study. Members of a working group on the issue failed to reach a consensus. With just a few days remaining in this year¹s legislative session, advocates had all but given up hope.

Now lawmakers appear poised to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug charges. They may also act on measures designed to cut down on debt-related incarceration and prevent the state from imprisoning people on probation violations if they¹re not convicted of the crime that constituted the violation. And they are fast-tracking a new proposal to reward inmates for good behavior.

Supporters burst into applause when the probation-violation measure cleared the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, in spite of opposition from Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch. ³It¹s a matter of fundamental justice and due process,² said the bill¹s sponsor, Rep. David A. Segal, D-Providence.

Under current law, if someone who¹s already on probation is accused of committing a new crime, the new crime constitutes a violation of their probation terms and they can be imprisoned for the entire length of their earlier sentence, minus whatever time they have already served in prison. But if they are found not guilty of the new crime, or if a grand jury fails to return an indictment, the probation violation does not automatically go away.

Even worse, advocates said, there is no clear legal procedure for getting the probation violation dismissed, and consequently, the person usually remains in prison even after the new charge has been dismissed.

Segal¹s bill would change that. It¹s on its way to the House floor, and would need to clear the Senate, too, before becoming law.

The same group of advocates rejoiced yesterday when the Judiciary Committee gave the nod to a bill by Rep. Joseph S. Almeida, D-Providence, to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug charges. The measure is expected to bring down prison costs by freeing judges to divert people into drug treatment, which costs less than incarceration, and give first-time offenders shorter sentences. A twin bill by Sen. Harold M. Metts, also D-Providence, is on its way to the Senate floor.

Metts is also the sponsor of a bill that would create guidelines for judges to release prisoners who don¹t have enough money to pay their court fines and fees.

Unpaid court fines and fees are ³the single largest cause of pre-trial commitments² to the Adult Correctional Institutions, accounting for 2,000 incidents a year and costing the state $500,000 annually, according to a report from the Rhode Island Family Life Center, a Providence nonprofit that assists inmates after their release. In 15 percent of these cases, the state spends more to keep the person in prison than the amount the person owes, the report said.

Under Metts¹ bill, if someone is getting disability payments, public assistance, or food stamps, that person would automatically be considered unable to pay, and could not be imprisoned solely for nonpayment of court fines or fees.

The bill also directs the court system to give arrested persons a hearing on ability to pay ³forthwith,² and orders the courts to assess convicted persons¹ ability to pay ³immediately after sentencing.² Advocates say the state prison is overcrowded in part because people are unable to get such hearings promptly.

Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union¹s Rhode Island chapter, called the bill ³a very important first step, both in addressing the overcrowding problem and the inequities that occur because of fines imposed in even minor criminal cases.²

Metts, a Baptist deacon who performs prison ministry at the ACI, also introduced a bill yesterday to allow inmates to get increased credit for so-called ³good time.² The bill has Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed as a cosponsor.

Under the bill, inmates who ³have faithfully observed² the prison¹s ³rules and requirements² and have not been subject to discipline would be rewarded with shorter sentences. Currently, inmates with long sentences ‹ anything greater than one year ‹ can only get one day subtracted for each year of their sentence. Inmates with shorter sentences ‹ between six months and a year ‹ can get one day subtracted for each month. Inmates with sentences shorter than six months don¹t qualify for ³good time² at all.

Metts proposes opening up the system to all inmates with sentences longer than one month, and giving all categories of inmates 10 days¹ credit for each month¹s good behavior.

The bill was introduced yesterday and scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee today, as the legislature continues its mad rush toward adjournment.

Also slated for a hearing today in the same committee is a bill by Rep. J. Patrick O¹Neill, D-Pawtucket, to allow sentencing judges to waive overnight stays at the ACI for people sentenced to community confinement. The bill passed the House last month.

egudrais@projo.com