LAWMAKERS FIND PRISON COSTS DIFFICULT TO CONTROL

A Mississippi Legislature, angry over the rising cost of running a prison
system, finds itself impotent to do anything about it.

The largest expense in any government - city, county, state or federal - is
people.

It is the same for a prison system. It costs a certain amount of money to
house an inmate. Any variation comes from the kind of facility - minimum
security, maximum security, restitution center, community work center.

Legislators who for years have preached rehabilitation and education of
offenders are still ignored. Lawmakers' only answer has been warehouse
prisoners in prisons, regional and private facilities and local jails.

Corrections officials privately say the "lock 'em away and throw away the
key" mentality is what got Mississippi into its mess.

Former Corrections Commissioner Robert Johnson told lawmakers just that.
Legislators don't like being told off. Johnson is gone.

New Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps has the respect of lawmakers for
both his 20-plus years' experience and his knowledge of how prisons work.

But even Epps must marvel at the stubbornness of lawmakers who refuse to
give him the money and the tools to run what is an agency 10 times the size
of a highway department or welfare department.

The House passed a bill to allow some model prisoners, called trusties, to
earn 30 days off their sentences for every 30 days they work or participate
in education programs. Current law gives trusties a day off sentence for
every three days worked.

Supporters said increasing the earned time off would save the state up to
$10 million next fiscal year by moving some inmates out of the prison system
more quickly.

The earned time plan would not apply to some felons, including those
convicted of capital murder, sex crimes and drug trafficking.

The Senate apparently wants to do less than the House.

The Senate Corrections Committee proposes giving trusties only 15 days off
their sentence for every 30 days they work, up from 10 days now in the law.

Committee members also told Epps not to count Saturdays and Sundays in the
computation of time off a sentence.

Corrections officials had interpreted the House bill to mean that if an
inmate had worked for a month they would get a month off their sentence.

"It's not an inmate's fault they don't work on Saturday or Sunday," Epps
told the Senate committee. "We deal with 30 days a month being 30 days."

Committee members also said too many inmates could fall under the time-off
sentence bill. They added those convicted of burglary and kidnapping to the
list of inmates barred from additional time off sentence.

For every argument to do less in the bill, Epps tried to explain why there
was a need for more.

"I understand the reason for what you want. I understand this is an election
year. Because I'm sitting here with a $32 million deficit, what I'm trying
to do is give you the facts," he said.

Epps said people want prisoners locked up and are told by prosecutors and
victims' rights counselors that that's what will happen. The budgetary
effect is never discussed or understood, he said. "I see it. All they see is
an inmate given time. We don't give away time. We don't have a bed space
problem. We have a money problem," he said. Epps has to wonder if anybody is
listening.