State Targets Prison Recidivism Correction Officials, Lawmakers Look For Alternatives To Jail Time

With half of Idaho’s parolees violating their parole and more than a third going back to prison, there must be something wrong, a state senator said Friday.

“Either they’re letting people out too soon, or there’s something wrong with the system,” said Sen. Sheila Sorensen, R-Boise.

Instead of trying to help ex-inmates succeed, parole officers are trying to “trip them up” on technical violations and return them to prison, Sorensen said. She proposed legislation calling for a one-year pilot project to help parolees with housing, food and finding a job.

The plan ran into harsh opposition Friday before being killed in committee on a 5-4 vote.

Senate Majority Leader Jim Risch, R-Boise, said it’s not surprising that half of parolees flunk and often end up back in prison.

“I can tell you why - they’re bad people,” he said. “You don’t just fall into prison.”

Camille Tillinghast, a member of the Commission for Pardons and Parole, told the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee: “The two things needed are halfway houses and drug rehabilitation. Many of the people we send out there are severe drug addicts. I worry about handing those people cash.”

Sorensen said she had no intention of giving the convicts cash. Rather than spend millions on housing parole violators in prisons, she said the state needs to look at prevention.

“We’ve thrown all our efforts into looking into alternatives for sentencing, and we’ve never even looked at the parole system.” Once an inmate is paroled, she said, “If we keep them out, we save a lot.”

In 1995, Sorensen said, Idaho sent 249 parolees back to prison. Once returned, they stay in prison an average of 16 months, so those prisoners cost the state about $6 million a year.

A package of bills proposed by Gov. Phil Batt designed to slow the flow of minor offenders that’s been flooding Idaho’s prisons for the past 10 years is moving through the Legislature with little opposition. But the majority of the Judiciary Committee was openly hostile to Sorensen’s proposal.

Committee Chairman Denton Darrington, R-Declo, and Risch said parole officers are doing their jobs just fine.

Darrington called an officer who was in the audience, Alan Gergen, to the podium. “Have you been directed by supervisors to go out and intentionally violate parolees?” he asked.

“Never,” Gergen replied.

Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, voted against the proposal. Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, voted for it.

“I like the idea,” Riggs said. “That particular bill was somewhat vague. … But I think that type of thing should be supported.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BACK TO IDAHO The Idaho Department of Correction has successfully completed returning 248 inmates to the state from prisons in Minnesota and Texas. The move announced in late January and completed late Thursday was forced by a $1.5 million cut from the amount Gov. Phil Batt sought for the agency to continue housing inmates out of state and in county jails through June. That decision was motivated by budget writers’ desire to fill up a new 536-bed prison addition south of Boise as quickly as possible. Idaho still has 200 inmates being held at the Frio County Detention Center in Pearsall, Texas, and it is uncertain when they will be returned.