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| Idaho Inmate Wants to Re-open Case that Highlighted Crowding |
| By Idaho Statesman |
| Published: 10/07/2002 |
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As Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne imposes his latest round of budget cuts, a prison inmate has asked a federal judge to reopen the historic case that forced the state to deal with prison overcrowding in the 1980s. William Lightner, who is serving a 20-year sentence for lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor, told the federal court in a petition filed in Boise that more than 60 protective custody inmates are being housed in conditions that violate the federal court order issued in 1986. Accepting claims made in a complaint by inmate Walter 'Bud' Balla, late-U.S. District Judge Harold Ryan in 1986 ordered the population in the main prison capped and imposed guidelines for inmate housing in other facilities. Combined with get-tough-on-crime sentencing laws that fueled a significant increase in inmate population, the decision put the state on a prison construction campaign that has exceeded $150 million. Prisons are again filled to capacity - above capacity according to Lightner - and analysts expect inmates will have to be shipped to out-of-state facilities by late November. The inmate population is growing by about 30 a month. Earlier in the week, to meet Kempthorne´s directive to cut $4 million from this year´s budget, Correction Director Tom Beauclair announced the elimination of 83 of the agency´s 1,467 jobs, cost-saving modifications to inmate meal menus and cuts in programming. Lightner, 40, who has been in the prison system since 1994, told the court that in addition to overcrowded conditions in Orofino, protective-custody inmates are subjected to mass punishment, inadequate access to recreation and church services, excessive confinement in their cells and denial of the programming and education needed to be eligible for parole. |
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