PRISON PROBLEMS GARNER ATTENTION

Candidates for governor say system needs change

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana's crowded and cash-strapped prison system likely will
prove a challenge for the winner of this year's governor's race. But all
three of the candidates say it can be improved without spending more money.

The $1 billion system houses about 23,000 adult inmates, despite a capacity
of less than 17,500 beds.

There are hundreds more inmates housed in prvate facilities outside Indiana,
plus another 1,800 in county jails - despite newly constructed space the
state says it can't afford to open at two state prisons.

Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan, who is unopposed in his party's primary, has
convened a group of state leaders who toured two packed prisons in an effort
to facilitate some discussion about possible solutions.

Republicans say they believe the problem with the Indiana Department of
Correction is inefficiency, a lack of creativity and an unwillingness to
look at the prison system as a whole.

"We need to take a look at the entire operation of the Department of
Correction system and say: `We have this prison overcrowding. What are going
to do about it?'" said conservative activist Eric Miller, one of two
Republicans seeking the party's nomination on May 4. "We don't have a
coordinated system."

The other Republican candidate, former White House budget director Mitch
Daniels, said the department is top-heavy with management. He said there is
not enough emphasis placed on getting inmates the services they need,
including drug rehabilitation.

About 1,800 inmates are on the waiting list for rehab, a number that
underestimates the need because only those two years from their release date
are allowed on the list.

Federal data make it "pretty clear that drug treatment dollar for dollar was
as effective or more effective than incarceration or interdiction - trying
to catch drugs coming into the country," Daniels said. "The most costly
prisoner of all is one that comes back a second, third or fourth time."

Kernan said as much last month, when he announced that Indiana is one of
seven states working with the National Institute of Corrections to develop a
system that provides case managers for inmates when they enter prison.

Those case managers will develop re-entry plans for the inmates and help
them receive education, drug rehabilitation and other services aimed at
easing their transition back into the community.

The goal, he said, is to keep inmates from coming back to prison.

"Ninety-eight percent of Indiana's prison population will return to
communities, and it is in all of our best interests that the individuals are
given the tools to succeed, rather than end up back in our overcrowded
correctional facilities," Kernan said.

Last week Miller said he's shocked that such plans are only now being put in
place.

"It's astonishing that's a new effort," he said.

Kernan also has assigned Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis to root out inefficiencies in
the prison system - and all other areas of state government - and find ways
to do more without spending more.

Daniels said the state needs to develop goals for all areas of the prison
system and then find ways to measure success.

"I would assume that in the case of corrections, we would look for things
like zero escapes, zero security problems, a low rate of recidivism," he
said.

To Daniels, the proof of the correction department's inefficiency is in a
contract the state has with a Kentucky prison to house 650 Hoosier inmates,
even as newly constructed prison space sits unused in Indiana.

"The current situation is senseless," Daniels said last week. "On a dollar
and cents basis, I'm convinced we can save money bringing those inmates back
to Indiana and hiring Hoosiers."

Daniels wants to open up the unused space, which houses some 2,300 beds, and
hire a private company to manage it.

"My concern here is with these vacant facilities and getting them operating
and saving some money," he said. "It's a glaring example of an
administration that seems incapable of the simplest management decisions."

Kernan didn't authorize the contract that sends inmates to Kentucky. That
happened during the second term of the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon, under whom
Kernan served as lieutenant governor. A few months after the contract was
signed, O'Bannon died after suffering a stroke and Kernan succeeded him.

Downes said he can't speculate about whether Kernan would have entered into
the same contract. Regardless, he said Daniels is oversimplifying the
situation.

Downes said much of the unused space in Indiana was developed specifically
for inmates with special needs, not for the general population. The inmates
sent to the Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Ky., tend to
be the cream of the crop.

The state spends $45 per inmate per day at Otter Creek, compared with the
$55 per inmate the Indiana department spends at its own prisons.

"To immediately fill those beds (in Indiana), the estimated cost would be
$25 (million) to $30 million," Downes said. "That theoretically costs more."

But Miller said those inmates never should have been sent to Kentucky in the
first place.

"Before we ever hire a company from out of state or a consultant from out of
state, we need to look at having the job done here in Indiana," he said. "We
would need to look at bringing the prisoners back from Kentucky and look at
how we can handle them in Indiana."

Both Miller and Daniels said the state needs to do more work with
faith-based organizations, getting the groups into the prisons to expose
interested inmates to their work before they are released.

"There are wonderful programs that faith-based organizations have undertaken
for years to help people in need," Miller said. "The state has not done a
good enough job reaching out to them."

Last month Kernan talked about the need to use faith-based organizations as
part of efforts to reintegrate inmates into their communities. That's also
an effort the General Assembly has pushed for several years.

In the past two budgets, lawmakers have tried to force the department to let
more prisoners out early and put them into community-based programs to help
them readjust to society. For a while, the department was resistant to the
changes, seeking money instead for more prison space. But recently it has
embraced the programs.

Today the department is working on a system of reclassifying inmates.
Department spokeswoman Pam Pattison said the goal is to lower the security
level for many inmates so they can be placed in work-release programs.

But Miller said the state must be careful to keep those who need to be in
prison locked up, not released to the public before they serve their time.