PRISONS TAKE AX TO REHAB PROGRAMS

State Calls Adding Beds Top Priority

Even as Florida taxpayers spend more money than ever to lock up convicts,
the state is making dramatic cuts in its most successful
prison-rehabilitation programs.

Gone are dozens of teachers, chaplains and rehabilitation counselors. To
help save $20.8 million, the state slashed 339 positions. That means GED
classes are reduced to bare-bones levels.

Vocational classes, such as cabinet-making and computer repair, have been
largely eliminated. And even some of the state's largest prisons, with more
than 1,000 inmates, now have just one chaplain and no support staff.

The prison system made the cuts because the overall state budget was
extremely lean. But the state came up with $65 million for 4,000 new prison
beds, which could ease crowding but further exacerbate the dearth of
rehabilitation personnel.

The man who ran the education programs for five years was so outraged by
these changes he quit last month.

Bill Woolley said the department has abandoned its mission to repair people
and keep them from harming new victims.

''The new philosophy is that they are in the care, custody and control
business,'' said Woolley, in a phone interview from his Tallahassee home.
``They're not in the business of necessarily educating them and putting
them in jobs.''

The cuts come even as the department's own research showed inmates with job
training and high school equivalency degrees are less likely to harm new
victims and return to prison. Inmates who get spiritual help create fewer
security problems.

Critics such as Woolley contend that cutting these programs will inevitably
lead to larger demand for prison beds.

Though other states' budget crises have forced tough decisions on spending
this year, few have followed Florida's path. California, for example,
considered trimming 330 teachers this year before deciding the potential
future costs of recidivism were too great. California is now reorganizing
to promote its academic programs, while cutting back vocational programs.

''If you get an inmate a GED, they come back less,'' Woolley said. ``If you
get them a vocational certificate, they come back even lesser, if you will.
And if you get them a job, they don't come back at all.''

This year's cuts come on top of the 85 positions sliced from last year's
education staff. Many of the surplus teachers were offered other jobs,
including positions as corrections officers.

Corrections spokesman Sterling Ivey says the priority is, and needs to
remain, keeping prisoners locked up.

''We've got 77,000 inmates in the Florida prison system that we're required
to supervise, feed and clothe seven days a week, and that costs money,''
Ivey said.

The bulk of the department's 26,000 employees are corrections officers.
About one in four of the 339 lost jobs came from the Tallahassee office.
When it came time to trim further, there was little else the department
could eliminate, Ivey said.

Corrections officials, with Gov. Jeb Bush's backing, earlier this month
persuaded the Legislature to pass an emergency $65 million spending bill to
help build more beds and to shore up funding to cope with an unexpected
surge in prison sentencing statewide. The justification: Without starting
construction, the state would find itself having to release prisoners early
to avoid crowding.

BUSH DISAGREES

Bush, an advocate of faith-based rehabilitation programs, told The Herald
he disagreed with the cuts in education and chaplain services, but said the
Legislature was largely responsible. He said he proposed cuts elsewhere,
such as the juvenile-justice program. Although he added money for beds, he
said he couldn't reopen the entire corrections budget.

'I don't think it's appropriate once a budget is complete to say, `Well,
it's just a work in progress, and we'll keep making adjustments,' '' Bush said.

The Rev. Obed Millan knows that well. He lost his only secretary last
month, a victim of the cuts.

FOR SOME, A LAST HOPE

Few prison jobs conjure more in the imagination than chaplains, often
depicted as the fallen's last hope for redemption. Millan also coordinates
hundreds of volunteers, keeping alive programs to prevent domestic violence
or curb drinking. His secretary coordinated those volunteers.

Each prison still has at least one chaplain. But 13 were let go, as were
most secretaries who coordinate volunteers.

''I know I have no time to do all the paper work, so I need to choose what
is the most urgent,'' Millan said.

Volunteers help but cannot replace staff, he said.

''There are some gaps that cannot be filled at all,'' Millan said. ``They
require a responsible and full-time staff.''

Inmates representing 13 religious denominations, including Catholics,
Pentecostals, Muslims and Buddhists, have sought help and counseling from
Millan. These links, like educational links, can help people resettle when
they leave prison.

Maria and Fernando Deheza see it every day. The couple volunteers, teaching
life-skills classes at the Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City
and the Broward prison for women in Pembroke Pines. One of the main reasons
prisoners are unable to adjust when they leave prison is a lack of
self-esteem, some of which comes from a lack of job skills, Fernando Deheza
said.

''Many doors are going to be slammed on them because of the stereotype, the
stigma,'' Deheza said.

Last year, the corrections department measured behavior of inmates who
attend chaplain activities. It found those who participate in at least 10 a
month receive, on average, only a third as many disciplinary reports as the
rest of the prison population. The same report said prisons with more
chaplains per inmate have higher participation. Many of the state's prisons
have more than 1,000 inmates but only a single chaplain.

COST EFFECTIVE

''Religious programming not only is an essential element to control inmate
idleness, it is a cost-effective means of providing a safer, more
manageable environment,'' the report concluded.

The prison system also saves money with its educational programs. A 2001
report found inmates who get a GED are 8.7 percent less likely to reoffend.
Inmates who get vocational certificates are 14.6 percent less likely.

The report concluded that for every 2,000 inmates who earned a GED, Florida
taxpayers save $1.9 million a year by keeping them out of prison. The
savings was $3.2 million for vocational program graduates.

Ivey said prisons will not abandon their educational programs. GED classes,
for example, will continue. But they will offer fewer sections.

But Woolley points to the state class-size amendment, passed by voters who
believe school children can't learn with more than 25 students in a class.

''Can you imagine having 45 or 50 inmates in a class?'' he asked.

Herald staff writers Joni James and Tim Henderson contributed to this report