JOHNSON, DEMS DIFFER ON PRISON MATH, METHODS

SANTA FE -- The upward spiral of spending on prisons has become an
election-year battleground between Democratic legislators and
Republican Gov. Gary Johnson.

On the surface, it appears the two sides are bogged down over what
Johnson says is a $3 million gap between what lawmakers are proposing
to spend this year and what is needed to run the prison system.
Johnson says the gap next year will be another $5 million to $6 million.

But behind those dollar figures are differences shaped by philosophy
and politics.

The biggest issue swirling around the entire budget debate -- but
highlighted in the corrections budget -- is Johnson's inability to
convince Democrats in the Legislature that he is making government
more efficient.

Johnson said the savings are there but Democrats just don't want to
acknowledge it.

Contracting with private prisons, for example, has resulted in lower
per-day costs to house about one-third of the state's inmates, Johnson
said.

But legislators argue that those savings are wishful thinking on
Johnson's part. They point to the overall corrections budget, which
continues to climb faster than spending for most other areas of state
government.

"We're trying to fund the corrections system, to fund it so it will
run well," said Rep. Max Coll, a Santa Fe Democrat and one of the
architects of the Legislature's budget.

"We want to do that, but it's kind of like if you get any money near
it, it's like a black hole. It sucks the money into it. It's just not
being well managed.

"And it points out the deception that we were given when the governor
stated that privatization would save a lot of money that we could go
ahead and put into schools."

Johnson, who often uses the same argument to discredit spending on
education, disagreed that money is being wasted on prisons.

"That is absolute baloney," he said of the criticisms from the
Legislature. "The cost of housing a prisoner has gone down as a result
of private prisons in New Mexico.

"Are prisons costing more? Yes, and it's a function of more prisoners
in the system. I mean, we had 400 more prisoners this year than we had
last year."

However the issue shakes out during a special legislative session
later this month, the state will probably be adding at least $12
million to the Corrections Department's $153 million general-fund
budget, a 7.8-percent increase.

If Johnson gets his way, that amount would be more like $17 million or
$18 million. But Democrats said any extra money for prisons will
probably be stolen from spending already pegged for public schools.

Doing the math

Part of the problem with comparing budget plans crafted by the
Legislature and the Governor's Office is that they're based on
different assumptions.

Simple budget math gets clouded by issues like:

The number of inmates locked up next year.

The governor's projection is 5,069 inmates in public and private
prisons in the state. The Democrats project 4,857.

At about $28,000 a prisoner, that difference of 212 prisoners means a
gap of almost $6 million, which represents much of the difference
between the budget proposals.

Which prisons -- public or private -- and what types of cells inmates
are placed.

The bone of contention here is 200-500 inmates that legislators would
rather see in minimum-security beds that are currently sitting empty
or projected to be empty at two public prisons next year.

To accomplish that goal, legislators said the state should only pay
for 340 inmates at the privately run prison near Santa Rosa, rather
than the 540 that Corrections Secretary Rob Perry had
recommended.

That could save millions that would otherwise be paid to the Santa
Rosa prison run by Wackenhut Corrections Corp., they say.

But Perry insists the state will take in more medium-security inmates,
which means those prisoners should be locked up at Santa Rosa.
State-run lockups with medium-security beds are already filled up.

He said reclassifying inmates to minimum-security beds in order to
save money poses a safety risk to corrections officers and other inmates.

The price tag for contracts to provide medical services for
inmates.

Perry said the Legislature shortchanged the department for medical
contracts.

Johnson also noted in his budget recommendations in January that
private prisons were experiencing "significant problems with the
delivery of medical health services."

Legislators are critical of the contracts, saying they should be
renegotiated so the state doesn't pay costs for medical services for
more inmates than are actually served.

Paying for prison-reform efforts.

Legislators and the Governor's Office agree that the state should take
the first steps in implementing changes to prisons that were outlined
in a special Independent Board of Inquiry report earlier this year.

Perry and Johnson argue that legislators used money to do that but
ignored the rest of the department's base budget for day-to-day operations.

Some money was included in prison-reform bill that Johnson signed into
law.

But more than $6 million to help run new "close security" cells at the
State Penitentiary's South Unit near Santa Fe was lost when Johnson
vetoed the budget last week.

Different philosophies

So why the different outlooks?

Some Democratic legislators argue that Johnson's get-tough-on-crime
policies since he took office in 1995 has meant more prisoners serving
time -- many in the wrong types of cells -- at taxpayers' expense.

They claim it's costing the public schools system -- the very system
that Johnson promised would benefit from the savings that prison
privatization would generate.

"We sit there and everybody gives schools so much trouble for not
being accountable for failing," Senate Majority Leader Tim Jennings, a
Roswell Democrat. "Well, Lord, look at the prisons. Show me where the
savings or the accountability is for prisons. There hasn't been any."

Democrats also argue that Johnson and Perry refuse to consider putting
nonviolent convicts into otherwise empty minimum-security beds or into
reintegration programs to prepare them for society.

Rep. David Pederson, a Gallup Democrat, pointed to the Independent
Board of Inquiry report this year that suggested that 200 to 300
inmates could be released from prisons into less costly community
corrections programs without any risk to public safety.

Pederson agreed with Perry that the state may need more medium- and
close-security cells. But those decisions should wait, he said, until
the state takes another look at all its inmates and reclassifies them
according to their real needs and security concerns.

"Let's not put the cart before the horse," said Peterson, a member of
the House Judiciary Committee. "Let's get a functional, modern
classification system and reclassify every inmate in the system. Then
we will know what level of custody we need instead of guessing or
giving knee-jerk reactions.

"It would behoove us to find that out."

Perry said the bottom line for prison spending is whether legislators
are willing to pay the price for a good system -- especially after
last year's bloody inmate violence.

"That gets right back to same argument of classification through
appropriation," Perry said, adding that he thinks legislators care
more about saving money than placing inmates in the proper prison cells.

"So did they save some money? Yeah, they saved some money. What was
the cost of saving some money? Security, misclassification, public
safety, institutional safety.

"I don't see a genuine intellectual interest on the part of the
Democratic leadership over there that you find in other states to
really understand what the correctional issues are. And that's
disconcerting to me."