Officials to study prison deficit

e-mail this story to a friend Related Web extra • Review the Budget and Control Board documents Previous coverage • Prison deficit skyrockets Click on the help icons for information on these links and any programs needed to open them.

The State Budget and Control Board, which Sanford chairs, ordered state budget officials Tuesday to look for means to reduce the prison system's deficit and to see if other agencies are facing the same dilemma.

The prison system, which includes 29 prisons and more than 23,000 inmates, started the year with an almost $6 million deficit that has grown with budget cuts and a swelling prison population.

Former Corrections Director Gary Maynard, in a report to budget officials, listed options ranging from the early release of prisoners to the closing of prisons and refusing to take inmates with sentences of less than a year.

New Director Jon Ozmint said Tuesday that he expects the agency to run some kind of deficit because any action taken in coming weeks will not be enough to save millions of dollars before the end of the state budget year in July.

"There are a lot of options," he said. "None of them are great."

Officials said options include furloughing non-violent inmates, which could be done on Sanford's order; invoking the Emergency Powers Release Act to release inmates early, which would need legislative passage; or increasing paroles and sending inmates to home detention. All of the inmates released would have to be non-violent.

Sanford said he has long supported truth-in-sentencing legislation, which requires inmates to serve the time they are sentenced to. He said while he will consider any option to cut the prison system's deficit, supporting the release of inmates "would be difficult."

He said he wants to see what shape other agencies are in before deciding in case other agencies also are facing shortfalls and are "ticking time bombs."

Ozmint told the board that one problem he faces in managing the prisons is that he cannot order employees to move to a different prison because of a state law that prohibits superiors from involuntarily transferring state employees more than 30 miles. Ozmint said the law kept officials from moving registered nurses to vacancies in prison infirmaries, which eventually had to close because of nursing shortages.

"That's the insanity of that process," Ozmint said.

Rep. Robert Harrell, who chairs the House budget-writing committee and sits on the board, said he thought that problem could be fixed this year by the Legislature.

Ozmint said the state currently has a staff-to-inmate ratio of eight inmates for every one staff person, a personnel ratio higher than any other state except Alabama, which he said does not have the same rehabilitation mission as South Carolina.

Officials also are considering new revenue means, including using money in the agency's accounts for prison industries, concessions and farms; converting bond money approved for construction to operating funds; further increasing charges to local governments for litter pick-up crews; and using funds from the sale of the Givens Youth Correction Center in Simpsonville. The sale is expected to generate $500,000.

Givens and State Park Correction Institution near Columbia, both minimum-security prisons, were closed two years ago to save money.

Officials also want to reduce staff by placing cameras around prison boundaries and further reduce medical expenses, records show.

Tim Smith can be reached at 803-256-7367.