INMATE NUMBERS UP

Meth Pushing State's Prisons Past Capacity

SHELBY -- Montana's prisons are overcrowded again, corrections
officials announced Wednesday.

"The inn is full, and it's driven by methamphetamines," State Prison
Warden Mike Mahoney told the Corrections Advisory Council.

As of July 1, state prisoners will take over the remaining 88 beds at
the Crossroads Correctional Center near Shelby that presently are
occupied by federal prisoners, said corrections Director Bill Slaughter.

A CCC contract with the state gives Montana preference for housing
inmates before federal inmates.

Legislators next year will face a choice: limit admissions to the
prison system or build new cells.

"The quickest way would be to have CCA (Nashville-based Correctional
Corp. of America) build it," Slaughter told council members meeting at
the private prison.

"They're a great contractor," he added. "And we get a tremendous bang
for our buck."

As a stopgap, state officials said they will need all of the 512
prison beds at the Crossroads Correctional Center.

"Before the sun sets today, I'm going to have to ask Warden (Jim)
McDonald for his prison beds back," Mahoney told the council.

"Our system is full, and our growth is such that we need these beds,"
he said.

On Wednesday, the prison had 492 prisoners -- just 20 short of
capacity. The state is paying for 413 of them, and the feds are paying
for 79 in a pod that holds 88 inmates.

Slaughter said the state pays CCC $45 a day per inmate.

"Tomorrow, (McDonald will) get a letter stating that we intend to take
the whole pod over by July 1," said Slaughter, noting that he is
required to give five months notice of such intentions.

That's a switch. Two years ago in the early release era, CCC was
losing money for lack of prisoners and had to cut back on staff.

"Last May 1, we began a relationship with the U.S. Marshal's Service
and began accepting federal prisoners," McDonald said.

Driving the crisis is the explosive growth in drug convictions --
particularly methamphetamines, said Slaughter.

The state's prison population has doubled in a decade, said Joe
Williams, central services director for the Department of
Corrections.

Although 59 percent of the male inmates are locked away for a violent
crime, the reverse is true for women.

"We have a big problem," said Williams. "Eighty-four percent of the
women are nonviolent offenders.

"That takes up fairly expensive prison space for nonviolent drug
offenders, primarily meth," he said.

The number of female prisoners has increased from 108 in 1995 to 357
last year, he said.

Facing a $10 million budget deficit two years ago, corrections
officials granted early releases to 567 male prisoners, paroling them,
putting them on probation or sending them to prerelease centers.

That won't happen again, said Williams.

"That release was a one-time event," he said. "Now there's no one left
we trust to let out early."

Still, it was a successful program, he said, adding that only 30
percent of the early-out inmates have been returned to prison.

"That's an amazing number because our normal recidivism rate runs
between 39 and 45 percent, and the national average is 51 percent,"
said Williams.

However, the growth in prisoners continues relentlessly, he
said.

Choices for legislators

By the time the legislature convenes next January, Slaughter estimated
his department will be running a deficit again.

"We've been funded for a 5 to 6 percent increase," he said, "but if
our prison population continues to grow, I'd guess we'll be
over-budget this year."

He suggested half a dozen long-range solutions.

One would be to ask legislators to create a meth treatment center,
much like the WATCH program for DUI offenders in Warm Springs.

But it will be expensive, he said, adding that a similar program in
Wyoming provides nine months of treatment.

"You can't touch a meth offender with a 28-day program (the standard
treatment time for alcoholics)," said Mahoney.

But District Judge Stewart Stadler of Kalispell told the group that
private plans generally provide 18 months of treatment and cost about
$45,000.

Another suggestion was asking legislators to reduce the length of
prison sentences since the practice of reducing sentences for good
behavior was abolished in 1998.

Another suggestion was capping admission to the prison
system.

"Perhaps we could look at a cap on the basis of one in, one out,"
Mahoney said.

The problem, he added, is that capping the system generally leaves
some state prisoners languishing in county jail cells until a prison
cell opens up.

"If you cap your admissions, you're going to push prisoners down to
the county level, and I'm already at double my capacity," objected
Capt. Dennis McCave of the Yellowstone County Detention Center.

Slaughter pledged that holding prisoners in county cells would only be
a measure of last resort.

Mahoney said the Montana State Prison has 1,350 beds, and he can
operate with 1,340 inmates in an emergency.

Slaughter said in the most recent count, there were 12 empty beds at
the state prison in Deer Lodge.

"But as a warden, I don't like running MSP with more than 1,300
prisoners," he said.

As a public servant, however, he'll follow orders, he
said.

"If you tell me to overcrowd the hell out of it, I'll do it," he told
the advisory council. "But I can also tell you that your blueprint for
catastrophe will increase dramatically."