DOYLE HOPES TREATMENT WILL SLOW INMATE INCREASE

Bigger Drug Effort Sought

Hoping to slow, if not reverse, the escalation of the state's prison
population, Gov. Jim Doyle will propose in his next two-year budget to
dramatically expand drug and alcohol treatment for criminal offenders and
provide more services - and alternative punishments - for offenders outside
of prison.

"I've always thought that the way you reduce the prison population is not
to open the back door and let people out," Doyle said. "It's to try to have
fewer people coming through the front door."

The Democratic governor will introduce his 2005-07 state budget on Tuesday.
On Friday, he discussed details of the Corrections budget with the
Wisconsin State Journal.

Some specifics The plan, which calls for an overall Corrections budget
increase of 4.7 percent, would expand some programs Doyle and the
Legislature initiated in the last budget and add several others.

Among other things, the budget would:

. Add intensive drug- and alcohol-treatment units at Racine Correctional
Institution and Taycheedah Correctional Institution for women in Fond du
Lac. When fully operational, the four-month programs would serve up to 522
men annually at Racine and 120 women a year at Taycheedah, at a cost of
$2.7 million for the two-year period.

. Expand the state's earned-released program to five more prisons. Under
this program, judges declare certain offenders eligible for early release
if they complete a six-month residential treatment program.

Inmates in the program now are housed at just two facilities: the 280-bed
Drug Abuse Correctional Center in Winnebago and the 30-bed facility for
women at Ellsworth in Union Grove - and has a waiting list of more than 1,200.

Doyle's budget would add 20 beds to the program by converting 40 beds at
each of five facilities. The new units would all be at minimum-security
prisons: Thompson in Deerfield; Oregon; Ellsworth; Kenosha; and Sherrer in
Milwaukee.

The total cost is expected to be about $2 million, but the administration
estimates that would be offset by $2.l million in savings from reduced
return visits to prison.

. Add $1.7 million a year in spending on drug and alcohol services for
offenders on probation or parole, more than doubling the current year's
commitment of $1.2 million.

. Increase options for judges to order alternative sanctions other than a
return to prison for people who violate the terms of their probation or
parole. Those include funding for 130 beds in more halfway houses for
high-risk offenders (up from about 470 today) and expanded use of
electronic monitoring, combined with 314 more "transitional living
placements" such as state-leased apartments for low-risk offenders.

The budget also would add six more "day reporting centers," central
facilities to which offenders in the community may be ordered to report for
treatment, counseling, job training or other services. The state operates
two such centers in Dane and Racine counties. Altogether, the changes would
cost about $3.1 million.

. Add 11 parole agents to increase supervision of high-risk offenders
released from maximum-security prisons, and add about $1.8 million in
contracted services to help paroled offenders reintegrate to society.

Advice of experts In all, Doyle's Corrections budget increases spending $83
million over the next two years, to $1.86 billion, one of the smallest
increases in Corrections in years. It anticipates the prison population,
which has tripled in the past 15 years, will start to decline, from around
22,000 today to about 21,277 two years from now.

The budget's emphasis on treatment, community supervision and alternative
sanctions echoes the advice of numerous experts in a State Journal series
on Wisconsin's correctional system last month.

Ed Latessa, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati
and a frequent consultant to the state Department of Corrections, said the
proposals appear to be "on the right track."

"We're not talking about letting people off," Latessa said. "We're talking
about putting people in good, structured programs that can work. What is it
about that that's soft on crime? We're going to put our dollars somewhere.
We might as well get some return."

Corrections Secretary Matt Frank said the budget seeks to address the fact
that an estimated 70 percent of those admitted to prison have some problem
with drugs or alcohol.

"It's very important that we reach many more of those offenders ... before
they're released back to the community," Frank said.

UW-Madison law professor Michael Smith said the programs sound promising
but that lawmakers ought to insist on evaluating the programs to be sure
they work.

"A good evaluation will tell you when a program is working, why and for
whom," Smith said. "That would permit you to refine it to make it more
effective."

State Rep. Garey Bies, R- Sister Bay, chairman of the Assembly Corrections
and Courts Committee, said he was intrigued by the proposals and urged his
Republican colleagues to "come to these ideas with an open mind."

Protecting the public needs to remain the primary goal of Corrections, Bies
said. But often that means addressing the underlying substance- abuse
problems that contribute to many crimes.

"I would take a real good, hard look at these and see if we can make them
work," he said, "because we just can't keep building prisons."