MORE DRUG TREATMENT SOUGHT FOR PRISONS

Budget plan seeks more money for programs to counter recidivism, free up
space, Doyle says

Madison - The size of a drug treatment program that lets state inmates out
early would nearly double under the budget that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle
will introduce Tuesday.

The expanded drug treatment program is one element of a plan that increases
funding for treatment, education and job placements for inmates and others
under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

Despite the growth in programs, Doyle said the budget he will present to the
Republican-controlled Legislature will contain the smallest increase in
corrections spending in well over a decade. His proposed corrections budget
tops $1 billion a year.

The expanded early release program would create room for an additional 400
inmates a year. The treatment program, which lasts for six months, now
accepts 400 men and 60 women yearly.

"We are going to continue to make the investment in alcohol and drug
treatment for prisoners," Doyle said in an interview. "It's just trying to
make sure that as the people come out (of prison), they come out able to
make it, and make it without drugs or alcohol."

The early release program started last spring. Corrections officials expect
about 60% of the enrollees in the program would graduate, meaning an
additional 240 inmates would be released early each year.

Under Doyle's plan, the program would be offered at five work-release
centers in southern Wisconsin. Each facility would offer the program to 40
inmates at a time. It would be fully operational by April 2006.

Judges determine if non-violent inmates are eligible for the program at
sentencing. About 1,200 inmates are waiting to start it.

The expansion would cost just more than $2 million over two years, but it is
expected to reduce overall prison costs because more inmates would be
released early.

An influx of inmates in the 1990s caused the department's costs to
skyrocket. For the fiscal year that ends in June, the department is slated
to spend $989.3 million, 62% more than it spent in fiscal year 1997. That
increase is about four times the rate all state spending rose over that
period.

Today, the state prison system holds about 21,800 inmates.

Doyle said some of his programs would add short-term costs but would
ultimately save money by reducing the number of inmates. By focusing on
treatment and education, the state could save money while keeping the public
safe, he said.

Doyle's plan also would create treatment facilities for 174 inmates at the
Racine Correctional Institution and up to 40 inmates at the Taycheedah
Correctional Institution, a women's prison in Fond du Lac. Participants in
those programs would not be released early, however.

Those treatment centers would offer a four-month program for 522 men and 120
women a year. Together, the Taycheedah and Racine programs would cost $2.7
million over two years.

The Racine and Taycheedah programs are modeled on the Chippewa Valley
Correctional Treatment Facility in Chippewa Falls, which opened last spring.

Drug treatment called vital

Doyle's budget also would devote $2.9 million a year on drug and alcohol
treatment for those on probation, parole and extended supervision. That's
more than double the $1.2 million the state is spending on such treatment
this year. Corrections Secretary Matt Frank said treatment is essential
because about 70% of prison inmates have problems with alcohol or drugs.

The budget also increases the department's focus on handling non-violent
offenders in communities rather than in prisons, Frank said.

"It's much cheaper to have an offender dealt with in the community than to
send them to prison," he said.

When offenders violate terms of their supervision, they are often sent
straight to prison. Doyle's plan would divert more to treatment facilities,
put them on electronic monitoring or require them to show up at one of six
new day-reporting centers.

Up to 100 offenders a day would check in at the reporting centers. Doyle's
budget does not name the communities where they would be placed.

The efforts would keep about 300 people a year from going to prison. The
prison-diversion efforts would cost just more than $3 million over two years
- - about $14,000 less than what it would cost if 600 offenders were sent to
prison when they violated terms of their supervision. Although the savings
would be slim initially, future savings is expected to be higher.

State Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin), vice chairman of the Assembly
Corrections Committee, agreed the efforts would help inmates "integrate into
society in a non-criminal way."

But if other corrections spending is held down, Gundrum questioned what
tradeoffs Doyle might be proposing and whether the expanded treatment
programs would come, for example, at the expense of adding more probation
and parole agents.

Easing caps for some schools

Doyle will outline his 2005-'07 budget to a joint session of the Legislature
on Tuesday. The governor also will call for easing the state-imposed
spending caps on school districts with declining enrollments, under a
proposal he said was part of a "major" commitment to education. He declined
to specify what his budget would mean financially for Wisconsin schools, but
he promised it would increase their funding significantly while addressing
issues such as declining enrollments, special education and transportation
costs, all without raising taxes.

Doyle told The Associated Press that his education proposal would change how
the state determines spending limits - how much each school can spend
through a mix of state aid and property taxes.

The state uses a three-year rolling average of a school's student population
to establish those limits. Doyle's proposal would change the formula to
allow schools to pick between the current method and a five-year rolling
average. The five-year average would allow districts to include earlier
school years when they had more students.

About 60% of Wisconsin schools have declining enrollments. State Rep. Dean
Kaufert (R-Neenah) said lawmakers from both parties have been searching for
a way to address the problem.

Still, Kaufert, who co-chairs the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee,
said he isn't sure the answer is allowing schools to spend more and increase
property taxes more, something Republicans have been trying to avoid.

Doyle has previously said his budget will include more money for: 4-year-old
kindergarten; school breakfast programs; a program to reduce class sizes
called SAGE, for Student Achievement Guarantee in Education; school
districts to devise more performance-based pay systems; and a boost from
$3,000 to $5,000 in the maximum state income tax deduction for families with
a student enrolled in college.

Doyle also has said his budget will slice 1,800 jobs from the state payroll
over the next two years; expand the BadgerRX program to help 500,000
individuals without prescription drug coverage buy medications; and add $3.8
million in tourism spending.

Doyle's budget also would provide about $10 million for health care
providers to increase the use of electronic medical records; $6 million to
help build a new Sturgeon Bay boat launch facility that would be used by Bay
Shipbuilding Co. and Palmer Johnson Yachts; and $2 million in grants for
farmers to convert waste produced by their land or animals into energy.