JAIL OVERCROWDING REMEDIES SOUGHT

Home Confinement Could Be An Option

The Division of Corrections is hoping to save money and ease up on
overcrowding in state prisons soon by using electronic monitoring bracelets
to put low-risk inmates on home confinement.

Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein said he would initially like to use
electronic monitoring for about 100 inmates who are close to completing
their sentences or already on parole.

The proposal to buy the bracelets is now being considered by the Division
of Purchasing, and a contract should be awarded soon, he told a legislative
interim committee Monday. Corrections must do something to relieve
overcrowding, Rubenstein said, because the total number of inmates in state
prisons has already reached 4,445, which is less than 500 short of a
predicted population of 4,935 by 2005.

Some inmates might be put on electronic monitoring even before going before
the state Parole Board, so they would have a record of coping outside of
prison walls by the time the board considers their cases, he said.

Steve Canterbury, executive director of the Regional Jail Authority, said
he also is encouraging the use of electronic monitoring for inmates in the
county and regional jail system, but the decision to use it is up to each
county, not his agency.

"We do our best to make them aware," he said.

Lawmakers received a strong argument in favor of that and other methods of
alternative sentencing from Jim Lee, chief probation officer in the First
Judicial Circuit. The three Northern Panhandle counties he serves have been
keeping many offenders charged with non-violent felonies and misdemeanors
out of jail by assigning them to a day report center, he said.

The center "blends high levels of control with intense delivery of services
needed by offenders," Lee said.

For example, they receive treatment for alcohol or substance abuse
problems, are subject to random drug tests and must report daily for
periods of 12 weeks up to one year. They also must pay court costs, fines,
fees and restitution, Lee said, and perform community service of eight to
24 hours each week.

Among the services offered to the offenders are rational cognitive therapy
to help them respond positively to events in their lives, educational
assessment and counseling, and job preparation and employment counseling.

In its first nine months of operation, the three counties have saved
$637,051 over the costs of incarcerating the participating offenders, he
said. The projected savings once the program reaches full capacity is $2.5
million a year, Lee said.

Of the 111 offenders who have been in the program, 34 successfully
completed it and only 21 had their right to participate revoked, while nine
earned graduate equivalency diplomas and three got jobs, he said.

Lee projected that the use of such a program and other alternative
sentencing methods could save the state $105 million in indirect costs if
the construction of a new prison could be avoided. That includes $80
million for building the prison and $25 million for staffing.

Direct cost savings would range from $45 million to $65 million, Lee said,
from a 30 percent to 35 percent reduction in the incarceration of
non-violent felons and a 35 percent to 40 percent reduction in the number
of misdemeanor offenders in regional jails.

Senate Finance Chairman Oshel Craigo, D-Putnam, said he would like to see
more figures on the cost of implementing such alternative sentencing
methods, but is interested in the potential.