By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer
With swelling prison populations cutting into state budgets,
lawmakers are exploring ways to ease overcrowding beyond
building expensive new correctional facilities.
Though the construction of prisons continues as states
struggle to provide enough beds for those behind bars,
legislators increasingly are looking at other ways to free up
space and save money, including expanded programs to help
prevent offenders from being incarcerated again, earlier
release dates for low-risk inmates and sentencing revisions.
Criminal justice analysts point to Kansas and Texas as recent
innovators. Both states are putting off building new prisons,
focusing instead on rehabilitation and recidivism. At the
same time, a new $7.7 billion prison spending plan in California
– where overcrowding last year forced Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger (R) to declare a state of emergency – has
met with skepticism. Critics call the plan “prison expansion,
not prison reform” and say the initiative relies on impractical
fixes such as shipping inmates out of state.
State spending on prisons surged 10 percent nationally last
fiscal year (see graphic) and growing inmate populations
played a lead role in those costs, according to an analysis
by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Corrections
trails only education and health care in swallowing state
dollars, and experts say lawmakers are responding to the
budgetary pressures by trying more cost-effective
approaches.
“We’re seeing more and more states in different regions and
with different political leadership tackling this issue and
recognizing that the more they spend on prisons, the less
they have to spend on health, education and other
priorities,” said Adam Gelb, project director of the Public
Safety Performance Project.
The project – which, like Stateline.org, is funded by the Pew
Charitable Trusts – in February forecast steep increases in
incarceration rates and state spending in the next five years
unless legislatures enact policy changes.
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) last month signed into
law a prison plan that is winning accolades for its creativity.
Among other measures, the $4.4 million package provides
financial incentives to community correctional systems for
reducing prisoner admissions and allows some low-risk
inmates to reduce their sentences through education or
counseling while behind bars.
Under the plan, the state offers grants to localities for
preventing “conditions violations” such as parole or
probation infractions – a leading cause of prison
overcrowding in Kansas and nationwide. To qualify for the
grants, communities must cut recidivism rates by at least 20
percent using a variety of support tactics.
The early-release provision would cut time served by 60
days for some offenders who successfully complete
programs that decrease their chances of returning to prison.
Several other states, including Michigan, Nevada and
Washington, recently announced plans to release some lowrisk
offenders early through similar initiatives, including
good-time credits and expanded work-release programs.
Expectations are high in Kansas. State Rep. Pat Colloton (R),
who led the push for the legislation in the House of
Representatives, said she expects the plan to allow the state
to postpone new prison construction until 2016 – though
officials had said expansion would be necessary starting in
two years.
In Texas, which houses 153,000 prisoners, the Legislature
recently approved a plan that lawmakers have characterized
as one of the most significant changes in corrections in a
decade. The package, part of the state budget awaiting
Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s approval, would divert
thousands of inmates from prison to rehabilitation facilities,
where beds would free up twice a year as offenders get help
and re-enter society. Notably, the focus on rehabilitation
would put off construction of costly new prisons.
The plan includes a new 500-bed treatment facility for those
incarcerated for driving while intoxicated (DWI) – offenders
who often have substance-abuse problems but receive no
rehabilitation and face stiff sentences without the possibility
of parole, according to one state Senate aide.
“We have changed the course of the ship substantially in
the state of Texas,” said state Rep. Jerry Madden (R),
chairman of the House Corrections Committee and an
engineer of the prison plan.
In California, the only state with a larger prison system than
Texas, Schwarzenegger this month signed a plan that calls
for the construction of 53,000 new beds, with rehabilitation
services to accompany the expansion.
Analysts say the plan has the potential to overhaul the
state’s prison system by providing inmates new opportunities
for education, job training and counseling. But they note
that funding for the initiative’s rehabilitation services is far
from guaranteed because the state has not yet approved its
budget, and many in the corrections community are skeptical
that lawmakers will follow through on their promises.
“It’s purely prison expansion. It’s just more business as
usual,” said Joe Baumann, a state corrections officer who
has worked for 20 years at the California Rehabilitation Center
in Norco. “The thing that everybody misses is the
incarceration rate per 100,000 people.”
Meanwhile, other states are revisiting their sentencing
policies. Nevada, facing an explosion in its prison population,
recently reinstated a commission – dormant since 2000 –
that will make recommendations on changing sentencing
laws to help ease overcrowding.
At least 22 states revised their sentencing laws between
2004 and 2006 to ease prison overcrowding, according to a
study by The Sentencing Project, a Washington., D.C.-based
organization that advocates for policy changes.
