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COMMERCIAL EDITORIAL --PRISONS FEEL BUDGET KNIFE -- THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:20 AM CST

The Department of Correction has been telling Arkansas sheriffs they could expect some relief from the more than 1,500 state inmates backed up in county jails once the new 360-bed prison at Malvern opened. The sheriffs learned earlier this week they’ll have to wait a bit longer when the opening was delayed because of budget reductions.

The department had looked at opening Malvern’s Ouachita River Unit in late December or early January, with several sheriffs indicating they were viewing the opening as sort of a Christmas present, even if it came after the first of the new year. The sheriffs will have to wait because the state doesn’t have the $7 million to operate the prison for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The problems may only grow since the state’s general revenues have fallen for 10 of the past 11 months.

The sheriffs actually got a double dose of bad news. The fiscal woes will likely exacerbate the backup in their county jails and mean the counties must wait longer for payment to hold the state inmates. “We project invoices exceeding funding will occur by the end of December,” Sheila Sharp, assistant director for administrative services, wrote in a memo to the Board of Corrections.

The decision to delay the opening didn’t come as a surprise. Gov. Mike Beebe recently announced a $100 million cut in this fiscal year’s state budget because of a reduction in anticipated revenues. For state prisons, the budget had to be trimmed about $6.5 million. State general revenues have fallen for 10 of the past 11 months.

In addition to delaying the opening, the board temporarily halted payment of unused holiday pay, telling employees they will eventually be paid up to 150 hours; imposed a hiring freeze on all non-security positions; trimmed $1.1 million from maintenance and operations at 20 prisons and work release centers; and cut the training budget in half.

The Board of Corrections also reduced the budget of the Department of Community Correction, by 4.5 percent, to $63.4 million, including freezing 18 new positions for probation and parole officers, cutting the number of visits the officers make to the homes of people under their supervision and reducing drug testing offenders by 25 percent.

If the number of prison beds are limited, shout it from the rooftops that they must be reserved for the badest of the bad.

While corrections is a growth industry for Southeast Arkansas, convincing the public that it makes sense to reduce the prison inmate population by fiscal sleight of hand will not be easy. Don’t be surprised if the blowback is intense.

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