STATES SEEK PRISON BREAKS

In Hunt for Savings, Officials Release Inmates While Boosting
Probation and Parole

States seeking to save money are beefing up probation and parole
programs to reduce the number of prison inmates, as well as pushing
rehabilitation over jail for low-level drug crimes.

The effort comes from governors of both parties and could stall
decades of tough-on-crime policies that saw state-prison populations
boom. States now spend a total of $50 billion a year, or 7% of their
discretionary budgets, on corrections facilities, according to the
National Association of State Budget Officers, behind only health
care and education.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, this month introduced a
budget that seeks savings from prison closings. Mr. Cuomo believes
"there is a lot of excess capacity in the prison system and is
saying, 'Why should we pay for it if we don't need it?'" said Erik
Kriss, a spokesman for the governor's budget division. Mr. Cuomo
didn't specify the number of prisons he would seek to close but has
stated that at least 3,500 prison beds could be eliminated, which
could save more than $100 million by 2013, Mr. Kriss said.

In Florida, Republican Governor Rick Scott on Monday introduced a
budget that would slash $500 million in corrections spending, in part
through staff cuts. New Hampshire and South Carolina have both
changed their laws in an effort to lower recidivism and cut prison
populations.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, last month announced the
state had entered a partnership with the Pew Center to develop
strategies for cutting Louisiana's prison population.

State lawmakers in Indiana, meanwhile, are considering a series of
changes supported by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

"One of the benefits of this will be the avoidance of over a billion
dollars of spending to build new facilities" Mr. Daniels said in
announcing the proposal recently.

States are not yet changing current sentencing guidelines for crimes
beyond low-level drug offenses. Instead, the changes are designed to
reduce the current prison population by, for example, offering
treatment to drug-addicted parolees to prevent them from returning to
prison for lengthy periods after their release.

Any changes are likely to face resistance from towns that benefit
from the jobs produced by local prisons and from unionized
corrections workers and other law-enforcement groups, some of the
most powerful players in state government.

Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of
Police, said it was premature to cut prison populations.

"Those officials have forgotten that it is the threshold
responsibility of an elected official to provide for the safety of
the citizens he or she represents," said Mr. Pasco, whose labor
organization represents 330,000 law enforcement officers. "Stay
tuned. When you let all these criminals out of jail, the crime rate
is going to go up again."

James Baiardi, president of the corrections chapter of the Florida
Police Benevolent Association, said "officers who work behind the
fences think some reform and changes in how they lock up people might
not be a bad idea." But he rejected the idea that changes to how
states handle prison populations should be driven by budgetary concerns.

In addition to stretched coffers, years of falling crime rates have
emboldened states to divert nonviolent offenders away from prison,
legal experts said. The nation's violent-crime rate in 2009 fell 6%
from the previous year, and was down 41% from 1990, according to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, which compiles data from states nationwide.

"Fiscal pressure alone won't spur prison reform, because you will get
pushback from politicians who will say you can't put a price on
public safety," said Michael Jacobson, director of the Institute of
Justice, a nonpartisan organization that works with states seeking to
reduce prison populations. As crime has declined, he said, the
"public is no longer clamoring for spending more money on prisons."

- -Vera

Texas was considering building more prisons. Now, it's seeking to
reduce caseloads for probation and parole officers, and funneling
drug offenders and the mentally ill to nontraditional court systems.

The state jails probation violators for shorter periods-for as little
as a couple of days, compared with finishing the sentence-enough to
"give them the idea that we are serious about them changing their
lives," said State House member Jerry Madden, a Republican, who
joined with a Democrat to push through the program.

The changes cost about $241 million, "a lot less than $540 million
for building three prisons" Mr. Madden said. Under pressure, the
state legislature is now considering cutting even that proposal.

"Every state ought to want to move in this direction," said Rep.
Frank Wolf (R., Va.), who requested a report to be released Tuesday
detailing the changes sweeping through state corrections departments.
He added that 20 states are making changes or seeking information
about what others are doing.

"I'm sending a copy of this report to every governor," Mr. Wolf said.

The report, compiled by the Council of State Governments Justice
Center, draws on studies by other groups and a criminal-justice
summit held last year. It highlights four common ways states have
successfully revamped their systems, including identifying high-risk
offenders, strengthening community supervision and concentrating
services in the places where most ex-offenders live.

In 2008, Arizona expected its prisoner population to increase by 50%
in 10 years, which would have forced the state to spend at least $2
billion to build and operate new facilities, the report said. By
placing a new emphasis on probation and parole supervision, Arizona
was able to slow the pace of people being returned to lockup, which
dropped to 5,354 in 2010 from 7,520 in 2008. The additional prisoners
would have cost the state $35.9 million.

Marshall Clement, co-author of the report, said the key was cutting
corrections budgets without prompting a rise in crime.

"The question is how to do it the right way and increase public
safety at the same time," Mr. Clement said.

In Florida, annual spending on corrections has increased from $500
million in 1988 to $2.4 billion even as the crime rate has dropped,
said Robert Weissert, the vice president of research at Florida
TaxWatch, a nonpartisan research institute that has advocated in
favor of reducing prison spending. "Incarceration is an important
function of the state, but we need to incarcerate people we are
afraid of, not people who are committing lower level crimes."

[sidebar]

Hard Times

Thirty-one states made midyear cuts to corrections spending, totaling
$805.9 million, in fiscal 2010.

State: amount in millions

Colorado: $112.5

New York: 70.0

Virginia: 68.5

Nevada: 63.4

New Jersey: 54.4

North Carolina: 52.6

Alabama: 36.8

Iowa: 35.7

Georgia: 34.0

South Carolina: 29.2

Maryland: 27.8

Oklahoma: 26.8

Mississippi: 24.9

Texas: 20.0

Pennsylvania: 19.4

Hawaii: 14.1

Idaho: 13.1

Missouri: 12.3

New Mexico: 12.3

Utah: 11.1

Washington: 10.0

Arizona: 9.5

Rhode Island: 6.3

Minnesota: 4.4

West Virginia: 3.9

Montana: 2.6

New Hampshire: 2.4

Kansas: 2.0

Nebraska: 0.8

South Dakota: 0.7

U.S . jail and prison population

Year: Jail: State and federal prisons

2000: 613,534: 1,316,333

2005: 740,770: 1,448,344

2006: 759,717: 1,492,973

2007: 773,341: 1,517,867

2008: 777,852: 1,522,834

2009: 760,400: 1,524,513

Sources: National Association of State Budget Offices (budget cuts);
Justice Department (population)