Batt To Offer Sentencing Alternatives In 3 Weeks He Wants To Decrease Prison Costs And Use Money For Better Education

Gov. Phil Batt said Friday that his committee of one is wrapping up its investigation into sentencing alternatives to staunch the diversion of cash from education, and he will make his recommendations within three weeks.

In response to a question from a participant at Girls State, the governor indicated just how important solving the problem of rising prison costs and declining education support was to him. Batt told them he would like his legacy as governor to be that he “decreased the cost of incarceration in the prison and put the money in education.”

“It’s a tremendous black hole draining our resources,” he said. “I think some changes can be made without jeopardizing the public.”

Batt was not specific about any proposal, saying afterward, “I haven’t eliminated anything at this point.”

In late April, Batt announced that he would serve as a committee of one to find sentencing alternatives to check the explosion in state spending on prisons at the expense of schools. He said then he could not promise a miracle and speculated that he might find nothing to stem the tide.

But the governor told the more than 100 participants in the mock government on Friday that he will have recommendations and that he believed it may be possible to “take people out of the expensive part of the system without jeopardizing public safety.”

He emphasized that his recommendations would not undermine the extremely low crime rate Idaho has. He and others credit Idaho’s tough stand against criminals, marked by a nearly tripling of the prison population in the last decade as felons serve longer terms in Idaho than most other states.

Batt said seven weeks ago that he had discussed the prison problem with State Supreme Court Justice Charles McDevitt, and in late May McDevitt said the National Council on Crime and Delinquency was preparing a report on sentencing alternatives for him.

McDevitt also said a number of state trail judges had offered suggestions that he was passing on to the governor.

Lawmakers have been lamenting escalating prison costs for several years, but they have also conceded that there appears to be no public interest in revising Idaho’s sentencing laws either.

And earlier this month, House Speaker Michael Simpson said the only solution he sees right now is to spend even more money on the corrections system today for expanded boot camps and inmate substance abuse programs in hopes of reducing costs.