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| Prison crowding subject of legislative special session |
| By Casa Grande Valley Newspaper |
| Published: 10/26/2003 |
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Legislators and state officials, including Governor Janet Napolitano , tour state prison facilities in Florence Thursday including tents like this one at the North Unit that house 10 inmates each. Legislators are in special session this week to decide whether to spend $26 million to ease prison crowding Legislators packed into Florence prison dormitories and 10-man tents last Thursday to see first hand why Governor Janet Napolitano wants $26 million to ease prison crowding. The group toured units at Florence and Eyman state prison complexes before reporting Monday to a special legislative session on this and other issues. "We saw a snapshot here, said Rep. Dave Bradley, D-Tucson. "We have to look at other snapshots as well." Bradley said the lawmakers will explore a variety of factors affecting prison spending, including mandatory sentencing policies and those for parole and probation violators. Napolitano has asked for $26.4 million this year to ease the growth in prison population and to find beds for approximately 160 new inmates entering the system each month. By 2007, a total of $470 million would be needed to accomodate an expected 9,000 additional inmates, she said earlier this month. Currently the department has about 31,000 inmates in space designed for only 27,000. The law makers talked with Napolitano and Dora Schriro, state corrections director, as well as prison officials, correctional officers and inmates while on the tour. "These yards really are quite good at succinctly summarizing the great concerns that we have and those issue which we hope to tackle in the special session," said Schriro. Higher risk inmates generally are housed one to a cell, but low-security risk prisoners are often double-bunked, housed in tents or temporary beds in day rooms. The crowding creates a dangerous environment for employees, inmates and the community at large, she said. "The impact of overcrowding on the department is quite obvious as you're walking around," said Schriro. "(L)ots of people, in a relatively small amount of space with relatively few, albeit exceptional correctional employees, creates a situation that is one that we don't want to push for very long. "We're redoubling our efforts to recruit and retain the very best staff that we can, particularly in sites like this (Florence) that have historic vacancy rates." Schriro was hired in July after eight years as a corrections official in Missouri. She has said she will push for more inmate education, employability and sobriety training. Currently, inmates testing below the 8th grade level are required to attend classes, but pursuing GED certification is optional. Schriro would like to require inmates to attend class or vocational training to improve their chances of success on the outside. "We are talking about ways to reduce future demand by increasing the number and nature of the work assignments that the inmates have so that they can be better released for the community and so that fewer of them will come back to us further on down the road. "We are going to need to expand our capacities primarily in the area of substance abuse. That's the place where we have the greatest deficiency right now.... About 75 percent have a need for some form of intervention and right now our capacity is such that we can meet less than 1/3 of that need.... We are going to need look across the cost effective way of delivering those services so that might be by partnering with community-based substance abuse providers or creating in-house capacity. "If you test dirty, not only should you be punished, but you also should be directed to mandatory treatment," she said. Florence hospital Schriro said she's interested in hearing more about a proposed Florence hospital, and would be happy to provide developers with letter of support. "It's a very promising proposal and I look forward to the continuing conversations and development of the ideas," Dora Schriro, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections," said Thursday. "It offers a lot of opportunity and if structured well could be a win for everybody." The developer has said the support of local prisons is crucial to making a hospital viable for Florence. The state currently pays almost a half million dollars a year in ambulance charges to take inmates to the metropolitan areas. Schriro said she'd be willing to provide a letter of support to help the hospital become reality. "I've not been asked for a letter. But we would be happy to provide one," she said. |
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