Article: State prison budget already too small to handle growth

[Phil in Paris]

By CURT WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer
North Dakota's new prison budget, which the Legislature just finished writing, could run a deficit of $1.5 million or more over the next two years, officials say.

Despite a 10 percent increase, the spending plan doesn't have enough money to handle the projected growth in the number of prisoners who will be housed in county jails and private prisons as well as within North Dakota's own corrections system.

"No one likes to start out knowing that they're short before they start, but as an administrator you try to meet the budget you have," said Elaine Little, the agency's director. "When we have no say in who comes to us, and how many come to us, that's pretty difficult to do."

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's budget includes about $8.4 million to house inmates outside North Dakota's system. The agency's budget analysts believe that sum is at least $780,000 short of what the department will need for contract housing in the next two years.

The current corrections budget is running $1.7 million in the red, and Dave Krabbenhoft, the agency's fiscal director, said the cost overrun in the next two years could easily reach that amount.

"It could get ugly," Krabbenhoft said. "I hesitate to even put a dollar amount on it."

During the Legislative session, corrections officials hoped more money would be added to their agency's budget during end-of-the-session negotiations between the House and Senate. However, Senate Republicans decided to approve the House's version of the plan without demanding changes.

Sen. Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, the Senate's majority leader, said he worried that money set aside to improve employee salaries would be cut in any late budget talks.

The Legislature voted to cover the current deficit in a separate bill, which included $13.2 million in emergency spending for several state departments. Corrections officials think a similar measure will be needed during the next legislative session.

"I don't like to necessarily have a deficiency, but sometimes you can't avoid it," Stenehjem said. "We don't have enough funding in the state general fund to fund everything at the level everybody wants."

The state corrections department sends extra inmates to a handful of county jails and a privately owned Minnesota prison if its prisons in Bismarck and Jamestown are full.

A recent population count showed about 1,000 inmates in the state penitentiary, the minimum-security Missouri River Correctional Center in Bismarck, and the James River Correctional Center in Jamestown.

About 380 inmates were being held in other lockups, including about 100 women at a county-owned prison at New England, in southwestern North Dakota. It has a contract to house female inmates who come into the state prison system.

Most of the next budget's allotment for "contract housing" is likely to be spent at the women's prison, Krabbenhoft said. The estimated cost of about $7.1 million for housing women inmates over two years is an increase of about $1 million from current spending.

The state pays a daily rate for each inmate at the women's prison, which is a converted Roman Catholic convent and boarding school in New England. That average rate is going up in the next budget year, from about $81 to about $97, Krabbenhoft said.

Projected cost increases at the women's prison include a 3 percent pay rise for employees, said Susan Ritter, the financial administrator for the prison's governing board.

The New England prison began taking minimum-security prisoners in November 2003, more than three months behind schedule. Renovation expenses contributed to a $359,000 loss in 2004, Ritter said.

Colby Braun, the prison's administrator, said the prison is requesting $450,000 from the six counties that own it to build special cells to keep troublemakers away from the rest of the prisoners.

Contract housing for male prisoners also is in demand. The overall prisoner count has not dipped below 1,300 since September, and corrections officials are forecasting 5.6 percent growth during the next two years.

Of the 1,380 inmates counted in mid-April, only 144 were women.

"If you just look at the numbers and don't do any fancy analysis, we could start seeing some real problems. We could see problems not only with money, but also with where we're going to put them all," Krabbenhoft said.

The crowding problem has prompted officials to look for more ways to keep some types of criminals, such as drug offenders, from filling the prisons.

State prison officials also are worried about inadequate pay for guards and other corrections workers.

A recent audit found the agency's average employee was paid 6.6 percent less than state workers in comparable positions. Corrections officials say state prison guards sometimes are paid less than their counterparts in county jails.

"We're facing this issue both in Bismarck and in Jamestown. We hire people, we train them and they move on to another jail," Little said.

Lawmakers approved $1.5 million to address the problem, besides endorsing a general 4 percent pay increase for all state workers in each of the next two years.

The first $1 million of the $1.5 million supplement is intended to raise pay for prison guards. The money would mean an average pay increase of $120 to $130 monthly for about 250 corrections officers, although they still could have lower pay than their counterparts at the women's prison, Little said.

In the end, lawmakers say the correction budget was difficult because it is tough to estimate how many prisoners will end up in the state system.

"In the Legislature's defense," Krabbenhoft said, "You've just got to draw the line at some point and let that baby go."

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