TNC
07-09-2005, 04:25 PM
Pocatello -- Today, the Department of Correction presented its plan for managing the growing prison population to the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee. The Department’s capital budget requests funding for $157,250,000 to add a new pod onto an existing prison and build a male prison and a female prison.
Director Tom Beauclair told lawmakers, “These three requests may look ambitious. But Idaho is growing, our prison population is growing and these beds are what we need over the next five years to manage that population safely.”
Beauclair says Idaho inmates will have to go out of state during the next twelve months, and will stay out of state until new facilities can be built. “If we delay building the next prison, we’ll have to remain out of state longer with more inmates,” Beauclair told committee members. The Department already has 360 more inmates than beds. County jails currently house the overflow inmates. The Department estimates sending inmates out of state will cost between $7,000,000 and $9,000,000 in Fiscal Year 2007.
Members of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee toured the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center. Director Tom Beauclair told lawmakers that the female facility is a microcosm of the entire prison system, “Idaho prisons are aging, and all facilities are housing more inmates than they were designed to manage,” Beauclair said.
The women’s facility originally housed 128 inmates when it opened in 1994. Today, the prison’s safe operating capacity is 279, but on Monday it housed 307 inmates and was at 110% of capacity. Cots provide places for the extra inmates.
Today, 6,502 (June 15) inmates are in IDOC custody and the Department manages nearly 11,000 probationers and parolees in communities around the state. Idaho’s prisons have remained at 100% capacity for more than three years.
Director Beauclair told lawmakers that the combined efforts of the Governor, lawmakers, partners in the criminal justice arena and business changes within the DOC have helped reduced the current prison population by 1,200 inmates, saving taxpayers millions of dollars in operating costs.
Capital Request:
Expand ICC – 300 beds $13,900,000
Female Prison/Medical Facility – 400 beds $45,850,000
Male Prison – 1,500 beds $97,500,000
Other requests include:
Maintenance and storage facility at the Orofino prison ($800,000)
Training facility at the Orofino prison ($375,000)
Laundry facility at the South Idaho Correctional Institution ($695,000)
http://www.corr.state.id.us/press_releases.htm#jfac
Director Tom Beauclair told lawmakers, “These three requests may look ambitious. But Idaho is growing, our prison population is growing and these beds are what we need over the next five years to manage that population safely.”
Beauclair says Idaho inmates will have to go out of state during the next twelve months, and will stay out of state until new facilities can be built. “If we delay building the next prison, we’ll have to remain out of state longer with more inmates,” Beauclair told committee members. The Department already has 360 more inmates than beds. County jails currently house the overflow inmates. The Department estimates sending inmates out of state will cost between $7,000,000 and $9,000,000 in Fiscal Year 2007.
Members of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee toured the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center. Director Tom Beauclair told lawmakers that the female facility is a microcosm of the entire prison system, “Idaho prisons are aging, and all facilities are housing more inmates than they were designed to manage,” Beauclair said.
The women’s facility originally housed 128 inmates when it opened in 1994. Today, the prison’s safe operating capacity is 279, but on Monday it housed 307 inmates and was at 110% of capacity. Cots provide places for the extra inmates.
Today, 6,502 (June 15) inmates are in IDOC custody and the Department manages nearly 11,000 probationers and parolees in communities around the state. Idaho’s prisons have remained at 100% capacity for more than three years.
Director Beauclair told lawmakers that the combined efforts of the Governor, lawmakers, partners in the criminal justice arena and business changes within the DOC have helped reduced the current prison population by 1,200 inmates, saving taxpayers millions of dollars in operating costs.
Capital Request:
Expand ICC – 300 beds $13,900,000
Female Prison/Medical Facility – 400 beds $45,850,000
Male Prison – 1,500 beds $97,500,000
Other requests include:
Maintenance and storage facility at the Orofino prison ($800,000)
Training facility at the Orofino prison ($375,000)
Laundry facility at the South Idaho Correctional Institution ($695,000)
http://www.corr.state.id.us/press_releases.htm#jfac