MOST PRISONERS BACK IN WISCONSIN

Wisconsin's eight-year dependence on out-of-state prisons all but ended
this week, state Department of Corrections Secretary Matthew Frank said Friday.

Frank said the only inmates not back in Wisconsin are 53 prisoners enrolled
in a treatment program in a privately run prison in Minnesota. Corrections
officials want them to complete the program before returning, Frank said.

Wisconsin's out-of-state prison population peaked at 5,085 in 2000. The
state relied on privately run prisons in four states since the exporting of
prisoners started in 1996. All of the state's prisoners should be back in
the state by summer, when the treatment program is done, Frank said.

The opening of three new Wisconsin prisons in recent years made way for
nearly 3,000 prisoners. But changes in corrections policy and broader
reliance on county jails in Wisconsin also helped, Frank said.

Gov. Jim Doyle said he hopes the occasion marks an end to the use of
out-of-state prisons. A declining crime rate also should help, said Doyle,
who announced two years ago that his corrections policy would focus more on
rehabilitation efforts, treatment programs and alternative sentencing for
offenders who violate parole or probation.

"We really changed the policy direction of the state, and rather than
seeing out-of-state as an option, we really are seeing it as something we'd
only use as a very last resort," Doyle said.

Since Doyle took office in January 2003 the state added room for about
1,500 prisoners at the Stanley Correctional Institution, 978 at New Lisbon
Correctional Institution and 450 at Chippewa Valley Correctional Treatment
Facility in Chippewa Falls.

The administration also opened prisons near Racine and Winnebago, where
inmates are allowed to work outside the prison system as they near the end
of their sentences. A former juvenile prison in Black River Falls also was
converted into an adult boot camp as part of an earned-release program,
mostly for nonviolent offenders, Frank said.

The state's prison system is designed to hold 16,534 prisoners but has been
expanded, mostly through "double-bunking." As of Friday, 22,145 prisoners
were in prison system custody, including 550 held in county jails and 34 in
federal facilities, said Jessica Clark, an executive assistant to Frank.
Although some of the prisoners held in federal facilities may not be in
Wisconsin, those prisoners would be held outside the state anyway because
of an ongoing prisoner exchange agreement with the federal government,
Clark said.

The state now has contracts with 13 Wisconsin counties, which are paid
$51.64 per prisoner per day - the same amount as Corrections Corporation of
America charges for space at its Appleton, Minn. prison, Clark said.
Counties housing state prisoners include Columbia, Douglas, Florence,
Forest, Langlade, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Oneida, Sheboygan, Vilas, Waushara
and Winnebago.

Two years ago, Doyle fought to delay opening new, Republican-backed prisons
to avoid expensive startup costs in the state budget. When he allowed them
to open, he altered some plans to fit his policy goals, providing
alternatives to traditional prison sentences for certain nonviolent
offenders. Now that the prisons are open, it's most cost-effective to fill
them, Frank said.

Overall, the cost of prison contracting is expected to drop from $39
million in fiscal year 2004 to $14.8 million for 2005, Clark said. No
estimate was available for an offsetting increase in costs as a result of
shifting prisoners back into to the state, Clark said.