INDIANA MAY FREE INMATES EARLY

O'Bannon Seeks Power If Prison Beds Not Added

INDIANAPOLIS -- The O'Bannon administration asked lawmakers yesterday for
authority to release some state prisoners 30 to 60 days early if the state
won't pay for more prison beds.

That could mean that more than 670 prisoners found guilty of class C or D
felonies -- crimes as burglary, cocaine possession and drunken driving
causing a death -- could leave prison during a two-month period this year
before completing sentences ordered by judges.

Bobby Small, Gov. Frank O'Bannon's public safety aide, said that could
significantly reduce the number of new prison beds the state needs to avoid
overcrowding.

O'Bannon said that "judges put them in because the legislature sets what
the penalty of the crime is. To get them out takes the process of legislation."

O'Bannon said he would prefer that the General Assembly provide enough
money to house an additional 1,600 prisoners. But without it, he said, he
is faced with the possibility of releasing felons early.

State Budget Director Marilyn Schultz presented two early-release proposals
to lawmakers during a meeting yesterday of the budget conference committee,
in which fiscal leaders in the House and Senate are seeking to reconcile
their differing versions of the state's next two-year, $22 billion spending
plan.

The first proposed a one-time early-release program, allowing those who
went to prison before Oct. 1, 2002, and whose most serious conviction was a
class C felony to go home 60 days early. Those with a class D felony would
go home 30 days early. Prisoners convicted of sex or incest crimes would
not be released early. It would result in the release of an estimated 673
inmates.

The second proposal creates a continuing early-release program, in which C
felony sentences are permanently reduced by 60 days and D felony sentences
by 30 days. Sex offenders would be exempted. There were no estimates on the
number of inmates who would be affected each year.

"We offer this to get the conversation started," Schultz said.

With the one-time release, the prison population would continue to grow,
while the continuing program would slow the rate of growth, Small said.

The conference committee did not vote on the plan or take action on the
budget. Instead, it took the administration's suggestions under advisement
for future negotiations.

The proposal comes about four months after Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton
released 567 state prisoners, all described as nonviolent offenders, to
save money. The average time remaining on those sentences was 80 days.

In February one of those prisoners was charged with raping a 25year-woman.
Patton suspended the early-release program shortly thereafter, saying he
believed the resulting public outcry would force lawmakers to fully fund
the Correction Department's budget.

In Indiana, O'Bannon's proposal seemed to find some support among fiscal
leaders, who are trying to build a budget in the face of an $800 million
deficit.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Crawford, who heads the
conference committee, said state prisons are a "vacuum that sucks up all
our state dollars."

"If we continue to go down this road," he said, "it's going to burst some
budgets."

The state spends about $590 million annually to fund prisons and other
corrections programs. That's about 5 percent of the state budget.

This year O'Bannon requested an additional $27 million over two years to
use nearly 1,600 more beds that remain unused at two prisons. State
officials said that should be enough to handle the projected increase of
1,200 inmates over the next two years and relieve some overcrowding problems.

But budgets passed by the House and Senate did not provide the money for
those additional beds, and Crawford asked state budget officials to come up
with alternative proposals.

That led O'Bannon to suggest releasing prisoners early.

But Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, warned yesterday that a continuing
early-release program may not yield the desired results.

He said judges likely will simply add more time to sentences to make up for
the 30or 60-day early release.

"This may be something that makes us feel good, but it doesn't ensure
anything in terms of an early release," he said.

Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton, asked state officials if the Department of
Correction might be better served by creating a board that would review
felons in all classes and decide who might be most appropriate for an early
release.

But Small told him that studies have shown such boards are ineffective at
predicting recidivism.

"You can flip a coin and be more accurate than a parole board," Small said.

Lawmakers are also considering a bill that would create a study committee
to consider sentencing and other corrections issues.