Overflow Eats Up Half Of Prison Budget Increase Department Of Correction Is Striving To Move Inmates Through System Faster

Almost half of the more than $20 million state funding increase being sought by the Idaho Department of Correction would go to pay for holding inmates in county jails and out-of-state prisons.

The proposed 30 percent hike, from $69.03 million to $89.40 million, for the budget year that begins next July 1 includes $9 million for handling the overflow from Idaho’s crowded prison system.

When the Legislature convenes in January, it also will consider a $9 million supplemental funding request from the Board of Correction for the current budget year to cover the projected cost of holding 750 inmates in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas prisons and another 205 in county jails.

“I think you can term our budget as concentrating on growth and programs which will move the inmates through the system faster and prepare them for parole,” Don Drum, the Department of Correction’s administrator for management services, said Tuesday.

“The reason we want to do it is because the quicker you can get them through the system the more economical it is for the state.”

Drum said the state’s inmate population has increased by only five during the past three months, so the state might be able to bring some inmates back and save some of the projected costs. Bringing back 100 inmates would save $100,000 each month, he said.

About $2.8 million of the requested budget hike would fully fund the 536-bed addition to the medium-security prison south of Boise, which is scheduled to open in January, for an entire year instead of just six months. Another $2.3 million would cover 5-percent pay hikes for employees that Gov. Phil Batt instructed all state agencies to include in their budget requests.

State Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, an Orofino Democrat, said many of the department’s employees are overworked because the state did not add additional workers when the five prisons were double-bunked two years ago.

“When you have employees with over 200 hours worth of comp time, you are not adequately funding or staffing what we already have,” McLaughlin said. “We’d better start looking at alternatives. … They have stressed out employees.”