Inmate Privileges Come With A Price Bill Would Require Classes, Work In Exchange For TV, Visitation

Prison inmates would have to work or take classes in order to get privileges such as television, weight-lifting and extended visits with family under a measure the House unanimously sent the Senate on Thursday.

The bill, worked out informally by House and Senate negotiators, is expected to pass the upper chamber quickly.

Another component of the measure - a reduction in prison administrative and recreation staff - is still up to budget negotiators, but the plan is to pare the staff enough to save more than $15 million, backers said.

House Corrections Chairwoman Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, said the bill, HB2010, is long overdue. “The main thing it does is link privileges to working or going to school. That is the least we can do to ensure society gets something for the money it puts into prisons,” she said.

Among other things, the bill provides that:

Privileges would be withheld from inmates who refuse to work in prison jobs or attend classes to learn the three Rs. The conference committee on the budget still must come up with the millions of dollars that will be needed to expand school and work programs, Ballasiotes said.

The Department of Corrections reduce management and recreational staff substantially, but again, that will depend on budget negotiators.

Some of the money saved from staff reductions would be earmarked to pay for expanded school and work programs, she said.

For the first time, inmates must help cover the cost of doctor visits - $3 per visit.

While the amount seems small, lawmakers contend it would cut down on unnecessary visits to prison clinics.

Corrections put new limits on inmate possession of obscene, sexually explicit or violent material.

In other action, the House sent the Senate a measure making changes in the state’s nursing-home system to save about $42 million over the next two years. The vote was unanimous.

The main thrust of the measure is to reorganize the system to send more people to community-based care when appropriate, and to cut costs by changing the way the state pays nursing homes and centers for care.

The change in the reimbursement formula would better reflect the actual level of care the individual patient was receiving.

The current formula is less precise and results in unjustifiably high payment rates to nursing homes, said backers of the measure, HB1908.