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| Officials Worried About DOC Budget Cuts |
| By seattlepi.com |
| Published: 03/07/2011 |
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Though he believes public safety won't take a hit if the governor's budget passes later this year, Department of Corrections secretary Eldon Vail expressed worry about cuts to prison drug treatment and basic education in a Friday interview with seattlepi.com. Of the roughly 16,000 inmates in Washington prisons, only a few hundred have gone through what department officials call criminal cognitive restructuring -- basically counseling that teaches criminals not to act on opportunities to reoffend. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy has recommended nearly half the states inmates go through such restructuring. But the state budget crisis led to across the board cuts for all state programs last year, and the state projects a $37 billion for the next two years. "When we create more idleness for inmates, we have more problems," said Vail, a former prison superintendent. He noted mental health programs haven't faced reductions. Despite a hardening of state prison populations in recent years as the number of non-violent offenders decreased, prison violence rates have dropped to levels not seen since 2006. Read More. |
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