The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough on Thursday offered his recommendations, which also included cutting his salary by 10 percent and shutting down the Martin Correctional Institution, in response to a request from Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, chairman of the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee.

McDonough originally suggested cutting his department's budget by releasing prisoners nearing the end of their sentences early and expanding work-release programs for others. But lawmakers quickly rejected the idea of releasing prisoners early.

Now, McDonough believes he can save about $43 million by tackling the problem of "year-and-a-day" inmates who he says are clogging the state prison system.

State law requires the state to house and pay for inmates who have been sentenced to 366 days or more. State prison officials claim that county judges have increased sentences for nonviolent offenders to a year and a day to relieve overcrowding in county jails.

McDonough's solution: Put those sentenced to 366 days "in tented and secured compounds" and have them "perform manual labor" to save the state money.

"The inmates, wearing leg irons (individually, not linked to each other) and dressed in distinguishing uniforms (i.e., stripes), would remain visible to the public while performing work assignments," McDonough wrote in a memo sent Thursday to Sen. Crist and Gov. Charlie Crist, who are not related. The parenthetical phrases are McDonough's.

Correctional officers on horseback armed with shotguns would guard the work crews, McDonough suggested.

McDonough, a retired Army colonel, proposed erecting the tents at two Panhandle facilities: Washington Correctional Institution in Chipley and Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in nearby Milton.

Each compound would house 500 inmates.

In addition, McDonough wants to postpone building a new prison in Suwannee County for at least two years and use money promised for that prison to instead raise tents there, too.

Potential tent-dwelling inmates would be screened to ensure they posed a low risk for escape and were not a threat to public safety, McDonough wrote.

McDonough also offered to take a salary cut of 10 percent, or $11,346, over the next nine months because it would "indicate the sincerity of our effort to make sacrifices in the public interest."

He also suggested a 4 percent budget cut for private contractors, including those that provide inmate food and health services, and a 4 percent budget cut for private prisons.

It wouldn't be the first time the state has tried to ease prison overcrowding by setting up tents.

But officials abandoned the tents and canvas barracks two decades ago after a federal judge overseeing state prisons ruled they could not be used as permanent housing.

McDonough, however, appears to believe the state could use them temporarily.

In his memo, he noted that state law allows the corrections system to "divert from expensive institutional commitment" certain prisoners who "can be placed in less costly and more effective environments."

Closing the Martin Correctional Institution, which employs about 300 workers and houses about 1,300 inmates, would save the state about $7 million a year, McDonough said.

Department officials want to shut down the prison because of its inadequate water supply and the difficulty in recruiting and keeping employees, said McDonough's spokesman, Robby Cunningham.

The Martin Work Camp would remain, and prisoners would be transferred to the work camp or other nearby institutions.

The Martin prison could be reopened if the water supply deficiencies can be corrected.

Using tents as provisional housing for prisoners is "something worth looking at," Gov. Crist said Thursday. He once earned the moniker "Chain Gang Charlie" while serving in the state Senate for his tough-on-crime stance, highlighted by a proposal that prisoners be shackled, dressed in stripes and put to work cleaning roadside debris.

Although none of McDonough's cost-cutting measures was included in Gov. Crist's budget reduction proposal released Thursday, Cunningham said corrections officials stand by their recommendations.

"The legislature's ultimately going to make the decision" on the budget cuts, he said. "At that point we stand ready to adopt either, both or a combination of whatever the final decision is."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2007/09/07/m1a_DOC_0907.html