Inmates at the Trenton Correctional Institution listen as Ron Ruzzy teaches them social studies as part of their educational training toward acquiring a GED. Gov. Mark Sanford wants South Carolina prisons to get more money. Ron Cockerille/Staff

Prisons to get budget boost

TRENTON, S.C. - In another year of merciless budget-cutting, the South Carolina Department of Corrections has the rare distinction of having $19 million added to its budget, as proposed by Gov. Mark Sanford.

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Cpl. Charlie Hamilton, a correctional officer at the Trenton Correctional Institution, stands at the doorway as inmates leave class to go back to their quarters. Ron Cockerille/Staff Robert Bollinger, warden at the Trenton Correctional Institution, says the institution is close to capacity and something needs to be done. Ron Cockerille/Staff

Don't let that number fool you, Corrections Director John Ozmint said. After three years and $70 million in cuts, the addition would merely "keep our heads above water," he said.

With a $276 million budget, South Carolina's prisons are second only to schools in state spending. With a population, however, that grows by 1,100 a year - seventh in the rate of growth nationally - that money is barely covering expenses, Mr. Ozmint said.

The system, which houses 24,000 inmates in 29 prisons, is operating with an inmate-to-guard ratio of 11-to-1, compared with the national average of about 6-to-1.

"We were one of the first agencies ... to take cuts, and we took drastic cuts," Mr. Ozmint said.

The governor's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year "is a first big step in recognizing the disconnect in some of our (judicial) policy and financial reality," he said.

"Somebody's got to have political courage to recognize that," Mr. Ozmint added.

At Trenton Correctional Institution in Edgefield County, Warden Robert P. Bollinger said the agency he has worked for since 1986 has been cut "down to the bone."

"We're still providing a service, but we've gone about as far as we can possibly go," said Mr. Bollinger, who oversees about 650 inmates in his medium-security prison.

Sentencing policies that require violent offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences have filled state prisons to nearly bursting, corrections officials say, and no money is coming from the Legislature for new prisons.

"We've got a 6-inch pipe going in and a 2-inch pipe going out," Mr. Bollinger said.

A recent proposal to alleviate the population crush through alternatives to traditional prison cells, including diversion centers and electronic monitoring, was abandoned when the state's solicitors opposed the change, saying it diluted truth in sentencing.

Mr. Sanford also wants to merge the state Department of Probations, Paroles and Pardons with Corrections, an arrangement that 39 states, including Georgia, already have. The consolidation could save the state about $1.1 million by reducing the administrative staff, according to the governor.

Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, the chairman of the state Senate Corrections and Penology Committee, said merging the agencies "is probably a better unified approach to dealing with crime and people who have been convicted and done time and been released. There probably will be a little more accountability."

"It's a bit of the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing," he said.

Mr. Ozmint said South Carolina needs "a unified policy from the time of sentencing to the time of release."

"To run two separate agencies is at times absurd," he said.

Probations, Paroles and Pardons spokesman Peter O'Boyle said the agency had no comment on the proposed merger with Corrections.

Though the proposed budget still keeps the prison system on a lean diet, corrections officials can take some solace in knowing that there are no more cuts, Mr. Ozmint acknowledged.

"I think it answers some immediate needs," he said. "And I think at the end of the day it will be the best proposal on the table. It's a difficult budget year, and nobody is going to put together a plan without smoke and mirrors that adequately funds everything."

SOUTH CAROLINA PRISONS

South Carolina corrections population vs. budget:

PRISON POPULATION/BUDGET

1999/21,855/$303.3 million

2000/22,053/$321.7 million

2001/21,346/$276.7 million

2002/22,643/$254.3 million

2003/23,773/$257.8 million

Source: Governor's office

Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or stephen.gurr@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Monday, January 26, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle