Pubdate: Fri, 04 Apr 2003
Source: Hartford Courant (CT)
Copyright: 2003 The Hartford Courant
Contact:  http://www.ctnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/183
Author: Dwight F. Blint, Courant Staff Writer

SPEAKERS DISCUSS STATE'S CROWDED PRISON SYSTEM

The governor and his new correction commissioner said they favor sending 
more Connecticut prison inmates out of state. Consultants recommended early 
release programs or alternatives to incarceration as ways to reduce 
Connecticut's prison population and rising costs.

All agreed Thursday that the state can no longer afford to leave its 
crowded prison system as it is.

Thursday the legislature's judiciary and appropriations committees met at 
the Legislative Office Building to hear testimony from experts, department 
heads, activists and former inmates on how best to reduce the number of 
inmates and reduce prison system costs.

Since 1990, the number of offenders supervised by the Department of 
Correction has grown from about 16,000 to about 21,000, resulting in 
numerous inmates sleeping on cots in common areas or double-bunked in 
cells. Over that same period, the agency's budget has grown from about $187 
million to well past $500 million.

Gov. John G. Rowland, who was the first to testify, said the state had 
reached a

"turning point" and that he was pleased that lawmakers had begun this dialogue.

He said the state had enacted tough laws and sentencing guidelines over the 
past 10 years to counteract the effects of drugs and the violence that came 
with it.

"I think at that time, we did the right things," Rowland said.

But he acknowledged that the pendulum had begun to swing the other way, and 
it may now be time to change "our laws and our philosophy," especially in 
light of the state's fiscal problems. Rowland said he did not support 
drastic measures that would jeopardize public safety, but was open to 
suggestions.

"All options should be considered and discussed as far as combining safety, 
justice and cost," Rowland said.

One of the initiatives being considered by lawmakers is a proposal titled 
"Building Bridges: From Conviction to Employment." James Austin of George 
Washington University, Michael Jacobson of John Jay School of Criminal 
Justice and Eric Cadora of the Open Society Institute prepared the report. 
They are regarded as experts in the field of criminal justice and represent 
the Council of State Governments.

The report recommends that some inmates should be automatically paroled 
once they complete 85 percent of their sentences and that nonviolent 
inmates could be released after serving 50 percent of their time.

It suggests that the chairman of the board of parole be given the authority 
to transfer an inmate from prison to an approved public or private facility 
any time within 18 months of the inmate's release date. It also recommends 
that offenders who violate some of the terms of their probation be given 
incremental sanctions or a shortened prison stay.

The authors claim that if all their recommendations were followed, the 
state would save almost $50 million and cut its inmate population by 
roughly 2,700 beds.

"This is very doable and would pose very little risk to public safety," 
said Austin.

Austin said that to properly initiate the recommendations, the state would 
have to improve its community supervision system and its risk-assessment 
programs.

But they and other witnesses noted that the state would spend significantly 
less by supervising inmates in the community instead of prison, where it 
costs roughly $27,000 annually to house each inmate.

Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz said she believed the proposal had 
good intentions, but she had concerns about the projected bed savings and 
giving the impression that the state was going to release large numbers of 
inmates.

She said she more strongly supported other recommendations such as sending 
inmates out of state -- an idea supported by the governor but opposed by 
many lawmakers -- and improving the programs that prepare inmates for release.

"Any initiative aimed at addressing the issue of crowding in our system 
should consider release options that balance the good intentions of truth 
in sentencing with policies ... aligned to initiatives that promote public 
safety, offender accountability and offender responsibility to become a law 
abiding citizen," Lantz said.

Chief Court Administrator Joseph H. Pellegrino said he was generally 
supportive of the recommendations in the report. However, he said staffing 
concerns prevented his department from taking on additional 
responsibilities in overseeing released offenders.

He noted that his department had lost 40 probation officers to layoffs and 
that another 30 were projected to take early retirement. He said his 
agency's alternative programs have been cut by $6.2 million.

"Losing 70 probation officers will increase average caseloads from 140 to 
211 per officer. This will make implementation of the graduated sanctions 
called for in the report virtually impossible," said Pellegrino.

Gloria Brown of Waterbury, a convicted felon and former addict, urged 
lawmakers to fund the services and programs needed to support and aid 
released offenders.

Brown, a single mother, said that an alternative program helped her to get 
her high school equivalency diploma, and then her bachelor's degree. She is 
now employed and working toward her master's degree.

"The AIC program offered me the tools that I needed to become the person 
that I always wanted and believed I could be," Brown said.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart