Lawmakers setting Corrections budget

Legislative budget writers are working on the state prisons budget today, setting budgets for each of the seven divisions within the state Department of Correction. Gov. Butch Otter had originally been calling for an 8.6 percent increase in state general funds next year, but revised his request down to 6.7 percent after the state’s prison population growth fell below projections and Corrections Director Kevin Kempf announced that all 173 Idaho inmates now being housed in a private prison in Colorado would be brought back to Idaho by April.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is looking at an even lower figure; between the seven divisions, the overall increase would be just 3.7 percent in state general funds, 6.3 percent in total funds. A key difference is a $3.8 million base reduction in county and out-of-state placement costs, based on the updated offender forecasts and bed utilization estimates. Another is that JFAC is using dedicated funds from the Economic Recovery Reserve Fund for $3.1 million for hepatitis treatment for prison inmates next year, rather than state general funds; the department originally had requested $5.5 million in state general funds for that, but has lowered the request as it’s found a way to contract for that service at the Medicaid reimbursable rate, reducing the amount for next year to $3.1 million.

So far, all votes on the divisions in JFAC today have been unanimous; there are no competing motions. Rep. Rick Youngblood, R-Nampa, praised Kempf, who’s just one year into his service as the department’s director. He noted that Kempf is making a series of changes throughout the Corrections Department, including distributing headquarters staff back out into prisons and decentralizing offender programs, accounting for them in the budget divisions for the prisons where the programs are delivered. Those changes are reflected in a series of moves within the various budget divisions.

Included in Kempf’s initiatives are a “security retention plan” designed to ensure that correctional officers see pay progression through their first five years of service, while preventing pay compression for those with more experience. JFAC unanimously approved the second year of the plan, which includes $2 million in state general funds within the state prisons division, and another $69,600 in the community corrections division.