CORRECTIONS OFFERS INMATE-RELEASE OPTION

S.C. agency has suffered the deepest budget cuts of any prison system in U.S.

Associated Press COLUMBIA - The Corrections Department says it either will
have to run its budget in the red up to about $24 million this year or
start releasing prisoners.

Prison officials plan to present its dire budget scenario at this morning's
meeting of the State Budget and Control Board.

In a memo to the board, the agency suggests several money-saving options,
including restarting a furlough program and emergency releases of
nonviolent offenders, that could free up to 4,000 inmates.

Another option would be to close one prison. But to avoid overcrowding at
others, the agency would have to release about 2,600 nonviolent inmates,
according to the memo.

The Corrections Department has not asked the board to act, yet. But at
least one member said releasing anywhere from 10 percent to nearly 20
percent of the state's 22,000 prisoners before they serve their sentences
is not an option.

"You don't want to let prisoners out," said House Ways and Means Chairman
Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. "There is a reason they are sentenced to a
certain number of years."

But Corrections isn't the only agency cut by the budget knife, and to stem
the bleeding there, plenty of other agencies will have to suffer, Harrell
said. "In the end, it will mean deeper cuts to other government agencies."

Few state agencies have been cut as deep as Corrections in the past two
years, said Jon Ozmint, Gov. Mark Sanford's pick to run the department.

Since May 2001, about 1,400 jobs have been lost, cutting payroll to about
5,800 workers.

The prison's $264 million annual budget has been cut by $80 million, or
about 23 percent. It's by far the deepest cut suffered by a prison agency
in the country, Ozmint has said.

The department also has closed two prisons, which has led to overcrowding.

About 1,500 inmates have had to sleep in prison gyms and day rooms or have
been placed three to a cell instead of only two to a cell, according to the
agency's memo.

South Carolina's prisons were under federal oversight for about a decade in
the 1980s and '90s because of overcrowding.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Cheryl Bates-Lee said Ozmint, who was
tapped to run the prisons by Sanford earlier this month, wanted to wait to
talk about the agency's budget woes until after today's Budget and Control
Board meeting.

Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, who leads the committee that oversees
prisons, says former Corrections Director Gary Maynard has done well
considering the circumstances.