STATE GETTING READY TO OPEN 3 PRISONS

North Carolina is on track to open three new prisons next year, partly
because of tougher sentencing laws that keep violent offenders
imprisoned longer.

The money to open three 1,000-bed maximum-security prisons comes as
state lawmakers are considering cuts in drug-abuse and rehabilitation
programs designed to keep inmates from returning to crime.

Both Gov. Mike Easley and the Senate included an $8 million increase
to staff the prisons, which are still under construction. However,
funding for substance-abuse programs, probation officers and prison
chaplains has been cut.

Department of Correction officials say the prison population,
especially the number of difficult-to-control "close custody" inmates,
is growing faster than available prison space. Some of that growth can
be attributed to structured-sentencing laws passed in 1993. Those laws
establish priorities for the punishment given. Petty offenders are
less likely to get prison time, but more serious offenders get longer
sentences with no early release.

"Structured sentencing has tended to place violent offenders in prison
longer," said Correction spokeswoman Pamela Walker.

The prison population has gotten more expensive to monitor as
long-term inmates displace those with shorter terms, said Susan
Katzenelson, director of the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory
Commission. Her group studies the effects of criminal punishments,
advises lawmakers and proposes changes to the system.

Initially, the prison population dropped as prisoners with shorter
sentences were released, she said. Now, inmates with the longer
sentences are filling the state's cells.

"They continue to stack up because their sentences are longer,"
Katzenelson said.

Because prisoners have longer terms and often are convicted of violent
crimes, more are classified as close custody, driving the need for
more maximum-security beds like those in the three new prisons.

Close-custody prisoners also cost more to house than others, averaging
$84 a day, compared to $54 a day for minimum-security inmates. Three
smaller minimum-security prisons are scheduled to close in the
Senate's budget. Despite money for the new prisons, rehabilitation
programs are feeling the pinch. The budget calls for the department to
lay off 19 prison chaplains, leaving many prisons without a full-time
minister. The Rev. Mark Reamer, chairman of the N.C. Advisory
Committee on Religious Ministry in Prison, said many inmates need the
support of a chaplain to turn around their lives. "People forget that
those who are incarcerated will eventually return to the streets,"
Reamer said.

Community-based programs that help inmates rebuild their lives are
also endangered, Reamer said.

In addition, Easley recommended eliminating drug-abuse programs in all
but minimum-security prisons. The Senate's budget retains most of
those services.

Easley spokesman Fred Hartman said the need for prison beds can't be
ignored. As for cuts in rehabilitation programs, he said Correction
Secretary Theodis Beck was faced with tough budget decisions and erred
on the side of public safety.

"Secretary Beck either has to cut programs or cut corrections
officers," Hartman said.