EARLY INMATE RELEASE GETS COOL RESPONSE

Financially strapped states such as Kentucky and Oklahoma are freeing
felons early to reduce budget deficits, but the concept is getting a
lukewarm reception at best among Tennessee lawmakers, who face a projected
$322 million shortfall of their own.

Gov. Phil Bredesen will work with Correction Commissioner Quenton White "to
see where department costs can be cut," Bredesen spokeswoman Lydia Lenker
said, adding that it was too early to say whether he might advance a
prisoner-release plan.

"The governor just took office a few days ago. They don't have definitive
answers for this stuff," Lenker said. "We are in the preliminary stages of
looking at the budgets of each department. Having said that, the safety and
security of Tennesseans is at the top of his agenda, and he never wants to
jeopardize the safety of Tennesseans."

One of the early decisions facing Bredesen is whether to follow the
recommendations of former Gov. Don Sundquist to build a prison of 1,400 to
1,600 beds in Weakley County and to add 700-900 beds to a facility in
Bledsoe County.

Despite Tennessee's budget woes, most of which stem from an additional $258
million required for TennCare, state lawmakers interviewed by The
Tennessean were largely opposed to making early release of inmates a budget
tool.

"I'm willing to listen to their argument, but I'm not persuaded at this
point that is what we need to do," said Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Goodlettsville.

"I think the money is important, but you get to a point (where) if you are
not careful you are going to let some of the bad people out who are going
to recommit. The recidivism rate is so high that I have reservations about
doing that."

There are about 26,000 felons housed in Tennessee prisons and county jails
at any given time, at an average cost per inmate of $47.63 a day. That adds
up to $1,238,380 per day or about $452 million per year.

If current laws and procedures remain in effect, correction officials
estimate the state will need 7,097 more beds by the end of 2011. One of the
factors contributing to the need for more prison beds has been a decline in
the percentage of felons receiving parole, from 34.9% in 1995 to 24.7% as
of last August.

Abolishing mandatory sentences, commuting sentences, parole reforms and
developing alternative punishment could free up some of the money that now
goes to prisons for health care, education and other critical needs.

The New York Times reported last month that states were laying off prison
guards or giving prisoners emergency early releases to reduce budget deficits.

Iowa has laid off prison guards; Ohio and Illinois are closing prisons; and
Montana, Arkansas, Texas and Kentucky are releasing convicted felons early,
the newspaper reported.

In neighboring Kentucky, Gov. Paul Patton created a firestorm by releasing
567 nonviolent felons last month and an additional 316 last week. The
projected savings: $6 million this fiscal year and $11 million in the next
fiscal year.

Haynes and other lawmakers said they were open to such money-saving ideas
as expanding the state drug court system.

Nashville's Drug Court was set up in 1997 to allow some drug abusers to
enter rehabilitation programs rather than go to prison.

"Drug courts have done a lot of good work," Haynes said. "They deal
primarily with nonviolent drug offenders who have committed crimes
sufficient in nature to warrant prison time, but they can, through the drug
court procedure, alleviate some of that time."

As vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and former chairman of the
select Corrections Oversight Committee, Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, says he
can see both sides of the issue. "I am familiar with the fact that some
people are looking at alternative incarceration being driven by budget
matters," Kyle said. The legislature came to the realization in the 1980s,
he said, that "you could never build enough correctional space and do
anything else in your government."

Kyle said two things that happened in the 1990s contributed to the problem
today: The booming economy led to the building of more prisons, and
legislatures became more conservative, passing a flood of so-called "law
and order" bills stiffening sentences for a variety of crimes and requiring
more and more prison beds.

"When the states had money, they incarcerated more people. Now that people
are having tremendously difficult budgets, one of the things they are
looking at is going to less costly methods of handling their correctional
population, either through intensive probation, home arrests, those types
of issues," Kyle said.

House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, D-Clarksville, said she as yet had seen
no effort to change Tennessee's sentencing system.

"I think there have always been efforts to look at nonviolent offenders and
what sentencing methods can be established to deal with them," McMillan said.

"That is why we have workhouses. That is why we have the ability for
individuals who are considered low-level classifications to serve their
time on weekends."

McMillan said the legislature should look at ways to steer more felons into
community correction-type programs, which typically cost one-third the
amount it takes to house someone in prison.

Rep. Randy Rinks, D-Savannah, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said
commuting sentences was "a pretty drastic choice."

Instead, he said, the legislature should establish more work-release
programs and boot-camp-type settings.