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Scaled-back wish-list from DOC doesn please lawmakersBY MIKE SMITHAssociated Press WriterINDIANAPOLIS - TheO’Bannon administration scaled back its funding requests for state prisons to meet tighter fiscal times, but lawmakers suggested Tuesday that the Department of Correction hasn’t gone far enough.“We need you to respond to some of the initiatives we have put in past budgets (to cut costs),” House Ways and Means Chairman B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, told DOC officialsduring their funding pitch.Lawmakers have been increasingly frustrated with the rising cost of corrections, and are especially so now because revenues have fallen fast behind projections at a time the Legislature must craft a new, two-year budget.Rising costs in Medicaid and corrections threaten to squeeze out even modest funding increases for more popular programs among politicians, especially public schools and universities.The DOC is asking for $82million in new money over the next two years for increased operating expenses alone. The largest share of that - about $47 million - would be used to staff and operate a new male prison in Miami County.The prison, which could eventually house an additional 1,600 inmates, cost about $68 million to build and could be opened this September.The DOC also wants about $16 million over the biennium for minimal staffing and startup costs for a new “special needs” prison at New Castle. It would house elderly inmates and those with mental illness or other conditions that requireextra care.The DOC initially wanted about $60 million over thebiennium to get that prison upand running at full staff more quickly, but the request was scaled back because of the state’s current fiscal condition.The agency also wants $4.6 million to enhance community corrections programs, and establish them in five more counties. There are now various home detention, work-release and other such programs in 63 counties.There are about 18,500 male inmates in custody of the DOC but the state is paying for 646 of them to be housed in Kentucky, and there are about 1,500 incounty jails across Indiana because of space problems in state prisons.The DOC projects the male inmate population to rise from18,500 to 22,609 by 2006, andthere already are federal courtorders capping the number thatcan be housed at three prisons.The agency also says many community corrections programs are full, and fewer court-ordered sentence modifications are being granted.But lawmakers suggested to outgoing DOC Commissioner Ed Cohn and other agency officials that they were not doing enough to cut costs by relying more on community corrections and a new transition program.Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, commended the DOC for makwt ving some initial steps in those directions. But he said they were only initial steps.“I think you have a long way to go _ but I think you can get there more quickly,” he said.Cohn, whose last day at the helm was Tuesday, said he knew lawmakers faced some tough choices.“We have tried to come up with the numbers and a plan that will not only benefit the citizens of Indiana, but also help you folks ... make the best decisions you think can be made,”he saiii
Newspaper Details
Anderson Herald Bulletin
Anderson, Indiana, US
Wed, Jan 31, 2001
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Monroe C.
IN, USA 14 Dec 2020
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