The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"It is of particular concern," Danberg said, plunking down a proposed $6 million capital spending plan for fiscal 2011 that, in deference to the state's severe money crunch, included no funds for the expansion of the Baylor facility.

"It was designed for 200 and it always has more than 400," he said. "There's just nowhere to go if the population goes higher."

Overall, the Department of Correction was hosting 6,833 inmates as of Oct. 30, but Danberg noted that the figure was down considerably from a peak of 7,250 several years ago. The Oct. 30 figure is 1,514 over the prison system's design capacity and 176 over operating capacity, a number that reflects the department's reading of how many inmates it can handle safely.

The new money in Danberg's capital request would go for maintenance, restoration, minor capital improvements and equipment, but he included $3.5 million for expansion of Baylor as part of a wish list that totaled $22.4 million worth of construction projects. He said he pointed out the needs now because prison construction typically takes four years from design to completion.

"I know we can't get the funding," he said, "but I believe the state should know what the needs of the department are."

Those needs include $14.3 million for a central medical facility. In the meantime, space has been reconfigured at Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington and personnel have been relocated at Baylor to provide more room for medical services.

The Multi Security Building at Sussex Correctional Institution, which houses medical services, is being expanded. The prison also is the beneficiary of a new A-frame medical services building financed in large part by penalties assessed against Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, the department's inmate health care provider, for nonperformance under a contract that expires June 30.

Other budget observations:

• As of Thursday, the department had 72 vacancies for correctional officers and, more critically, 34 openings for probation officers. The latter total represents 10 percent of authorized slots -- including those of four supervisors in Sussex County -- and could be problematic, Danberg said, in providing community services under the Markell administration's inmate re-entry program.

• "Howard Young is deteriorating." Work to restore outside masonry at the Wilmington facility -- "popped off" by water that seeps inside the concrete exterior -- is complete, and $4.6 million has been programmed for restoring interior walls damaged by the same problem. The Wilmington facility's kitchen also needs to be replaced at an estimated cost of $3.1 million.

• Some 110 single-inmate cells at Sussex' Multi Security Building should be shut down, an action that would save about $1 million a year. Danberg says that, as the building is now configured, it takes one officer to keep tabs on two inmates, and that the size of the building doesn't lend itself to double cells that would make it less labor-intensive."

• In keeping with dictates from Visalli's office, the department's operating budget would remain flat at $249.5 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091120/NEWS02/911200354