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| Prison director makes pitch for more funding |
| By Idaho State Journal |
| Published: 06/20/2005 |
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Idaho Department of Correction Director Tom Beauclair told state lawmakers touring Pocatello Women's Correctional Center last Wednesday he plans to ask them for $159 million next fiscal year to provide more space for the state's rapidly growing prison population. If inmate numbers continue rising as predicted, Beauclair said his department will have to start shipping inmates to private prisons in other states by next spring. Beauclair spent nearly an hour before Wednesday's tour presenting predictions and trends, hoping to give visiting members of the powerful Joint Finance Appropriations Committee insight for preparing their fiscal year 2007 budget. But his talk boiled down to one statement: "The days of adding beds to our current infrastructure are over." For JFAC members, the choice is divvying resources between new prisons and treatment programs or incurring the consequences of shipping inmates out of state. "The legislatures have a choice to face - $159 million in new prisons or let's change the way we send people to prison," PWCC Warden Brian Underwood said. Housing inmates out of state would cost Idaho taxpayers between $45 and $60 per day per inmate, depending on the level of service provided at the out-of-state facilities chosen. But Beauclair said the greatest problem would be moving inmates so far away from their support networks. And most women in prison have children. JFAC members asked Beauclair if community treatment programs could be used as alternatives to prison, or to help lower Idaho's recidivism rate. He said many inmates remain in prison only because they're awaiting access to in-house treatment programs. "We have no halfway houses. We have no detox. We have no available alternatives for judges," Underwood said. "You can argue we're sending the wrong people to prison, but not under the current system. "Nobody's been willing to put the money up front and reduce the (prison) growth. I do believe there are some alternatives we could look at." To Rep. Donna Boe, D-Pocatello, who does not serve on JFAC but attended the tour nonetheless, the correct choice is clear. "I think we need drug treatment before people even commit a crime. Look at all the money we would save if we had something like that," said Boe, adding she will attend an executive committee meeting of the local Regional Substance Authority today, and the group routinely requests more drug treatment program funding. "People go without treatment, and they get in trouble." But the worst choice of all, Boe said, is sending inmates out of state. For the fiscal year 2007 budget, Beauclair said he plans to request $13.9 million to add 300 beds to Idaho Correctional Center, a private prison in Boise, $45.85 million for a new 400-bed women's prison and $97.5 million for a 1,500-bed men's prison, among other things. If the state funds the proposed men's prison in fiscal year 2007, it would open in 2009. Even with the prison, numbers show there would still be a shortage of beds, Beauclair said. Idaho's current prison population includes 6,502 inmates. |
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