PACKED JAILS REACHING CRISIS LEVELS

A convicted drug dealer, Bryon Welch is staring down more than 20 years
behind bars in the state and federal systems. But in the upside-down logic
of prison life, Welch might consider himself lucky.

Unlike other prisoners convicted of state crimes, Welch gets to sleep in
his own bed in a Rhode Island federal detention center. The 36-year-old is
no longer shoehorned into a conference room or gymnasium where he sleeps
with dozens of other inmates. He's not bedding down in a "boat," the
temporary cots where up to 900 Department of Correction inmates sleep every
night.

Thousands of inmates are sleeping "dorm-style" in converted gymnasiums and
medical facilities as the state's prison population has experienced
constant, unprecedented growth since July 2001.

State corrections officials say there's little end in sight. The prison
population has increased by 6.4 percent in the last year alone, causing the
department to break its own population records on an almost weekly basis.
On Sept. 4, DOC officials hit an all-time occupancy high, only to have that
surpassed on Tuesday, when the total incarcerated ballooned to 19,175
statewide.

"These are record-breaking numbers," said Christina Polce, a DOC
spokeswoman. "But we can't close the doors and say we're full. It's our
responsibility to manage these folks, and to make our staff safe. a | But
it's been a challenge."

These new records come just as the state plans to add new beds and prepares
to extend its three-year contract with the Virginia Department of
Corrections to house 500 Connecticut inmates. The $12 million deal
attracted controversy in 1999 when the state shipped its highest-security,
longest-term inmates to Virgina's Wallens Ridge facility, but two prisoners
died there, including one non-violent drug offender who was close to
finishing his three-year sentence.