Sen. Peter Shumlin has said he wants to save $40 million in prison spending, and use some of that money to help fund pre-Kindergarten programs, though he doesn’t put a price tag on that part of his proposal.
“We should lock up people we’re afraid of, not the people we’re mad at,” Shumlin said on WVMT. “We should put services on the ground for people this administration has abandoned.”
Is his target, which represents a third of the current Corrections budget, realistic? Probably not, budget experts say, but they all agree the state’s prison expenditures must be reduced significantly.
The Department of Corrections budget has doubled in the last decade, jumping from $70 million to $140 million in 2009. Prison spending dropped by about $7 million this year, because the inmate population fell by about 141 inmates from an all-time high last year of 2,306 prisoners, according to Andy Pallito, commissioner of the Department of Corrections. In addition, the Douglas administration and the Legislature cut $5.4 million from the Corrections budget through the Challenges for Change government restructuring effort. The state is also spending money on “justice reinvestment” programs – home detention (the state purchased ankle bracelets to track inmates’ whereabouts), and transitional housing (prisoners who were eligible for release have stayed in prison because they had nowhere to go). Once the transitional housing “beds” are online late this fall, Pallito said the state will see even more of a drop in the prison population.
“We’re doing it in a way consistent with public safety and keeping up with case loads,” Pallito said. “There is a rational speed to push change.”
A $40 million cut to Corrections would be a very big haircut – it would mean reducing the department’s $127.6 million budget by a third. Pallito says he doesn’t know if the Shumlin plan is feasible because he says the senator hasn’t offered sufficient detail. About $15 million to $16 million of the state’s Corrections budget pays for 600 prisoners (a number of whom are violent criminals) to be housed out of state, according to Pallito. In order to save $40 million, the state would have to look at bringing all those inmates home and closing two correctional facilities – at a loss of about 200 to 300 jobs.
“That’s the order of magnitude we’re talking about,” Pallito said.
Pallito pointed to the state’s largest facilities as potential targets in Shumlin’s scenario — Newport, which has the largest correctional facility in the state, costs about $15 million to run. The second biggest facility, in Springfield, costs about $17 million to operate, according to Pallito.
“The Challenges for Change initiative balances the need to save money with public safety,” Pallito said. “We’re doing this in a way that is consistent with our mission. If we were to accelerate that, I’m not sure we can do it within our mission for public safety and community involvement.”
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, has spearheaded the state’s justice reinvestment efforts. He said Shumlin’s plan to cut $40 million more in Corrections would be feasible over several years, but it would also require an investment of $15 million to $20 million in transitional housing, drug treatment programs and community justice.
“That’s ambitious, no question about it,” Sears said. “Think about this fact. If he were to accomplish that goal, (the state’s) Corrections spending would be equal to (its spending on) higher education – $90 million.”
Sears said Vermont is one of the safest states in the nation, but we continue to lock up too many nonviolent offenders. In a given year, 7,000 people are sent to jail in Vermont. A high percentage of those inmates have substance abuse problems; 75 percent of the women and 45 percent of the men are nonviolent offenders.
Before the state started its justice reinvestment programs, Vermont had one of the fastest growing prison populations, Sears said, and “the state would have locked up an additional 1,000 people in five years if we didn’t change what we’re doing.”
“I maintain that through justice reinvestment we can make our state safer,” Sears said. “If we reduce recidivism, we’re not creating new crimes.”
A small number of nonviolent offenders, Sears said, have to stay locked up – “drug dealers and people who don’t get it.” He said the percentages of nonviolent offenders could be lowered and public safety could be enhanced over the long haul, as former offenders who find stability in their lives become integrated in communities. Still, he says: “It won’t happen overnight.”
Mike Thompson, director of the justice center for the Council of State Governments, said Vermont’s prison cost-cutting measures are part of a national trend.
“Every state across the country is zeroing in on Corrections spending and trying to get more for their investment,” Thompson said.
Prisons are the fastest growing line item in state budgets next to health care, Thompson said. The difference is, unlike health care, which is subsidized by the government through Medicaid and Medicare, there is no federal reimbursement for prison expenditures.
“It’s like a Pac Man eating into other priorities, whether it’s education or economic development,” Thompson said.
Thompson points to Texas and Kansas as examples of states that have been able to curb extraordinary prison population growth and close facilities.
In Kansas, former inmates were failing probation and winding up back in prison. By reducing the number going back to jail through beefed up probation programs, the state was able to significantly reduce its prison costs.
In Texas, prisoners were staying in prison longer because parole programs had been cut and parole boards didn’t want to release inmates into communities without adequate monitoring and support for offenders.
As crime rates have fallen, New York State’s incarceration rates, for example, have declined significantly, while Vermont, one of the safest states in the country, has one of the fastest growing prison populations in the area.
“The question is, we’re most interested in public safety, but are there ways to spend money to get more public safety for less?” Thompson said.
