The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The department would also avoid significant reductions in parole services and community corrections, Werholtz said, and "elimination of special enforcement officers and virtual elimination of the remainder of offender programs."

Werholtz made similar remarks to a Cowley County task force at a meeting in his office last Friday.

Skepticism remains among leading Republican lawmakers about using stimulus funds. House speaker Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, and others have expressed reservations about building the "one-time money" into the state's budget.

The state expects to receive $1.7 billion in stimulus funds.

The Sebelius administration has allocated $81 million of that money to the department of corrections over two years, according to Werholtz.

Local lawmakers took a wait-and-see attitude about the stimulus money late last week.

"We are all flying blind," said Sen. Steve Abrams, R-Arkansas City, who attended the meeting with Werholtz. "It all depends on the revenue estimates in April."

State Treasurer Dennis McKinney said he expected revenue to pick up in April when 2008 tax returns were due. Estimates of future revenue, however, depend on the assessment of the Kansas economy by a team of experts, McKinney said.

Rep. Kasha Kelley also attended the meeting with Werholtz. She is a member of the appropriations committee in the House of Representatives. She called the stimulus money "a real unknown."

Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson has chaired a task force to follow the stimulus legislation in Washington. He will succeed Sebelius when she resigns as governor to become secretary of health and human services in the Obama administration.

Democrats in the Legislature expect Parkinson to pursue Sebelius' revised budget proposal.

"I hope they accept it. It would be foolish not to," said Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield.

During the meeting with Werholtz, Kansas Veterans Commission Executive Director Jack Fowler said closure of the Winfield Corrections Facility would cost the Kansas Veterans Home at Winfield an estimated $1.8 million in services. The prison pays the utilities and provides laundry, food and maintenance services to the veterans home, according to WCF warden Emmalee Conover.

The two institutions are located on the campus of the former Winfield State Hospital.

Along with several others at the meeting with Werholtz, Winfield City Manager Warren Porter pointed to the close relationship between the prison and the community.

Porter cited 33,000 inmate hours provided to the city last year, with city supervision. "I really believe we have tried to embrace the prison and the department in the community," he said.

Arkansas City City Manager Steve Archer said inmate work had saved Arkansas City $183,000 last year.

Mick Roark, manager of Northern Contours, which employs inmates at its Strother Field plant making wood-fiber panels for kitchens and bathrooms, said his company would have to end its Cowley County operation if the prison closed.

Northern Contours employs some 26 inmates. The minimum-wage inmate labor is needed to meet competition from China, Roark said.

Marvin Estes, superintendent of USD 465 at Winfield, said closure of the prison would affect 83 students, 64 in Winfield, 15 in Arkansas City and others in smaller communities

Estes mentioned the Brothers in Blue, local men who visit inmates, and the presence of inmates at local church services. "I can't imagine any program any better to value and integrate inmates than the ones we have in Winfield," Estes said.

Cowley County Administrator Leroy Alsup offered the use of unfilled beds at the Cowley County jail, if appropriate. An upturn in the prison population is under way and expected to continue, according to Werholtz.

Werholtz expressed concern that the state's widely recognized re-entry programs for inmates not be allowed to disappear. He thanked the Cowley County group for coming to Topeka to tell its story.

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