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| Budget proposal would close prisons, cut jobs |
| By Morris News Service |
| Published: 09/12/2003 |
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More than 1,100 jobs would be eliminated and up to 15 prisons and other facilities shut down under a budget plan the Georgia Department of Corrections submitted to Gov. Sonny Perdue last week. The proposal, a worst-case scenario if Georgia's economy doesn't rebound in the next year, would also get rid of all paid chaplains at the state's prisons and delay the building of new detention centers already in the works. 'I'm sure there are some things in here that are going to strike at the very heart of some people,' said Carlton Powell, the chairman of the state Board of Corrections, which approved the plan unanimously. 'But in tough times, you have to make tough decisions.' This summer, Mr. Perdue ordered all state departments to submit plans that cut their current budgets by 2.5 percent and add 5 percent in cuts for fiscal year 2005, which begins in July. The two-year plan would slash a total of about $69 million from the prison system's budget, which has already undergone a couple of rounds of fiscal belt-tightening. The prison and probation system's 2005 budget under the plan would be $847 million, down from $957 million last year. Alan Adams, the action commissioner of the department, said prison officials would try to find other jobs for workers who are laid off. But he said many of them would be teachers, counselors and other employees for whom there will be few opportunities elsewhere. In all, 1,171 positions would be eliminated. In making the cuts, Mr. Adams acknowledged that the Department of Corrections would be moving away from any real effort at rehabilitating inmates to focus on confining them. Inmate advocates say cutting librarians, high school diploma training and legal advisers would make inmates more likely to return to crime when they leave the system. |
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