Task Force Doesn’t Solve Prison Problem Board Balks At Freeing Inmates To Save Money

Idaho’s prison population is growing by 27 inmates every month, thanks in part to stiff sentencing laws.

If nothing changes, the state will need to spend $250 million to double its prison space in the next six years.

Gov. Phil Batt didn’t recommend funding any major prison construction next year, after dumping $40 million on new cells this year.

Instead, he pinned his hopes on a task force to develop sentencing alternatives for non-violent offenders, who comprise more than half of Idaho’s prison inmates.

But the task force’s long-awaited report came out Friday without any sweeping changes that would head off the big construction bill.

Batt was disappointed.

“He regrets the fact that we keep having to spend all this money on prisons and it’s cutting into other priorities,” said spokeswoman Amy Kleiner. “But unless society sends a signal that they want to let people out of prison earlier or reduce the sentence length, this is the situation we’re in.”

“I heard loud and clear there was not a great interest to reduce sentences,” state Corrections Director Jim Spalding said Friday.

He’ll be back next year with a request for $76 million to build a 1,000-bed prison near Boise.

“We’ll be behind the curve,” he said. “Next year will probably be our big year.”

Waving a hand toward the Capitol rotunda, he said, “Just walk around this building and ask people what they think about releasing DUIs, taking DUIs out of prison.”

Eleven percent of the prison population is serving time for felony drunken driving.

Another 16 percent of prisoners are doing time for drug-related offenses. Spalding said the number of new drug offenders coming into the system has gone up 73 percent since January of 1995.

Diverting those offenders to treatment is out of Idaho’s price range. It costs about $48 a day to house a prison inmate; in-patient drug and alcohol treatments costs $185 a day, Spalding said.

Because no one wants to back off on sentencing, Spalding says Idaho should focus on the 6,000 or so people on probation and making sure they don’t head toward prison, along with preventive programs for juvenile offenders and others. “What you ought to do is get ‘em before they come to me.”

In a statement launching the sentencing task force, which was included in their report, Batt said nonviolent offenders probably shouldn’t be in prison.

“About 55 percent of the total prison population could probably be returned to work centers or house arrest without causing the populace to be in any danger,” he wrote.

The task force didn’t go that far.

“The governor respects the fact that the Legislature has passed these mandatory minimums, because that’s what society demanded,” Kleiner said. “But he also wants people to understand that if we keep building prisons, it’s going to continue to cut into dollars that could go or should go to education.”

Batt picked out three of the task force’s recommendations that he plans to push for this year. One would allow a fund now being collected in counties for home-monitoring equipment to be expanded for use in misdemeanor DUI cases.

The fund isn’t being tapped now, Kleiner said, because it’s reserved for felonies, and felony offenders are going to prison.

The second recommendation would seize the vehicle of a felony drunken driver. If it meets constitutional standards, it could keep repeat drunken drivers off the road and sale of the car could help fund prosecution, Batt said.

The third would extend the jurisdiction judges keep over juveniles who are tried as adults to the juvenile’s 21st birthday. That would allow a judge to change a sentence, depending on the young offender’s progress.

Batt also wants to add hearing officers to the Commission of Pardons and Parole, to cope with a skyrocketing caseload.

The task force’s other recommendations include:

Making driving without privileges a misdemeanor instead of a felony. There are 70 people in prison solely for felony driving without privileges, serving one- to three-year terms. If the charge became a misdemeanor, they still could get two years in county jail.

Exploring a “drug court” program for first-time drug offenders that would sentence offenders to treatment rather than having them go to trial. If they successfully completed treatment, their records would be wiped clean.

Encourage counties to start “work out” programs for offenders who aren’t threats to the community, to allow them to continue working while serving jail time. That would avoid the costs to society that occur when inmates leave their families unsupported.

Require a valid driver’s license and proof of insurance when registering a vehicle in Idaho. That may help prevent some driving-without-privileges crimes.

Spalding said, “The department has had early release legislation for the last three years. It never goes anywhere. Nobody is willing to talk about that.”

He said resignedly, “The feeling of the people around the state is they want people in prison.”

, DataTimes