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Eye On Boise

Prisons chief: ‘We are trending in the right way’

Idaho state Corrections Director Kevin Kempf (Betsy Z. Russell)
Idaho state Corrections Director Kevin Kempf (Betsy Z. Russell)

Idaho’s prison system met a key deadline in October to provide new training to all probation and parole staff on how to apply tailored sanctions for violations, better track offenders and make other changes designed to encourage offenders not to re-offend, state prisons chief Kevin Kempf reported to state lawmakers today. It’s also seen some other key changes as a result of the state’s justice reinvestment initiative, which has been under way for two years now and involves all three branches of Idaho’s state government, aiming to end a "revolving door of recidivism" that’s left Idaho with an outsized prison population despite its low crime rates. Idaho’s working with the Council of State Governments and the Pew Charitable Trusts on the project, which lawmakers have overwhelmingly endorsed in hopes of saving the state from spending hundreds of millions on building new prisons.

One goal Kempf said likely won’t be met: Reducing caseloads for probation and parole officers to 50 offenders per officer. “I don’t see that happening today,” Kempf said. “That would represent us asking for 64 additional probation and parole officers,” and would cost the state $4 million a year. Kempf said before asking for that much more staff, the department is trying other moves. Among them: 15 positions were eliminated from its headquarters and moved to front-line jobs, including eight new probation and parole officers. Low-risk offenders are being moved to a new Limited Supervision Unit that allows them to check in online monthly, with regular audits and flags for any changes or problems; that also reduces officers’ caseloads, he said.

A key factor is aiming to have an offender on supervision for an appropriate period of time – and not too long, Kempf said. “If we can have an offender successful on probation or parole for a 24-month period, their likelihood of being successful when they go off supervision, it goes way high. .. If you keep them on (for a longer period) … it goes down.” He said, “Being on supervision is hard, it’s expensive and it’s hard.” He recalled when he was an officer himself, waking up a household at 11 p.m. after parents had gotten their kids to bed, and other disruptions involved with supervision. When offenders experience it for many years, he said, “We can see why those stats start to go in the wrong direction for people to fail. They abscond or they just give up or whatnot.”

The department is starting a big push to line up community mentors for offenders who are released. Kempf said there’s “an army of community and faith-based volunteers” who want to help offenders reintegrate into society, but in the past, the department had a policy that former inmates should have no contact with prison volunteers after they’re released. “That’s just not a smart decision,” he said. “We have to have that mentor program. … That’s how they’re connected to the community.” He said, “If we have a community that just kind of keeps them at arm’s length, who do you think they’re going to hang out with? They’re going to hang out with criminals and they’re going to commit new crimes.” Kempf said the department will be offering training to community mentors, who can help newly released offenders connect in positive ways with their communities. “If there is a cavalry coming over the hill to help us with this caseload, this is it.”

Kempf also reported that the state is seeing success on tailoring sanctions for supervision violations through the new Idaho Response Matrix, though it needs to work more on positive reinforcement. “We’re very good at the sanction piece,” he said.

From July 2012 to June of 2015, he reported, “Releases to parole have increased 41 percent, while releases without supervision have decreased 9 percent. … That’s a good thing for us. We don’t want inmates topping their time and walking out of prison without supervision. There are reasons why some inmates will want to do that, but I’ll tell you, that is not good for public safety.” Instead, he said, “Have them go through that process where we can step them down in the community in a safe manner.”

“This data shows I think exactly what justice reinvestment was asking for,” Kempf said, including moving the appropriate offenders out of the state’s prison system, which research as part of the project showed has been keeping non-violent offenders behind bars for far longer than other states. “We have some work to do,” he said, related to getting offenders into the programs they need before their parole date arrives.

Idaho’s prison system also had an extensive review of all of its treatment programs, Kempf reported, and found that nine out of 12 – on which the state was spending about $7.5 million a year – “did not have sufficient enough evidence to suggest they work. That’s not good.” Changes have included discontinuing therapeutic communities and some other programs, and “going with the recommendations that came out of the justice reinvest program. … It’s going to make our program modern, it’s going to make our program simple.” Kempf said Idaho’s correctional system now has a “treatment model that’s 100 percent research-based, it’s working.”

Overall, he said, “We are trending in the right way. We’re trending below what was even projected from justice reinvestment, where we should be.” Idaho’s prison population is at 7,861 this week, down from 8,052 in March of 2014 and below the justice reinvestment projection of 8,724. Said Kempf: “I’m not going to be in front of JFAC this year … to create more beds or build another prison.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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