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| Report: N.C. needs 6,000 More Prison Beds |
| By The Charlotte Observer |
| Published: 01/23/2006 |
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North Carolina's prison building boom -- six 1,000-bed prisons planned over six years -- hasn't been enough. The state requires 6,000 to 10,000 additional prison beds to meet the expected need over the next decade, according to a new report. The boost in prisoners, fueled by the state's population growth, will pressure legislators to spend tens of millions of dollars building more prison beds or reduce sentences for some felonies. Any delay could place more of a strain on prisons and on county jails, which handle the prison overflow. The report, prepared for the N.C. Sentencing Commission, could determine whether state prison-system funding becomes part of the debate when legislators start putting together a budget in May. The commission and state corrections officials are reviewing the forecast and could recommend legislation. Other states are facing the same problem and are considering building prisons, releasing inmates and shipping prisoners to other states to alleviate the space crunch. Inmate advocates who said guards were afraid to patrol packed prisons at night prompted the last N.C. prison building boom in the 1990s. Jails are just supposed to hold potential felons until they're sentenced. Then the state is supposed to take over. The state has nearly 38,000 prisoners squeezed into barely enough space to meet court rulings and laws determining how much room each inmate should have. To keep prisons from overflowing, the state pays counties $40 a day per inmate for jail space. Counties held 4,774 state prisoners for at least a six-day period during the last three months of 2005. The state paid counties $1.7 million for the space. |
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