Corrections Head: Recidivism Dropping, Prisoners Increasing

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Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Wall says the state prison system is on track to reduce recidivism, but he faced some tough questions from the legislature’s finance committee yesterday in defending his $2 billion biennial budget request.

Wall told the committee a recent analysis of 125,000 inmates over the last 20 years found that the state’s recidivism rate is declining gradually. But the Department’s prediction says the prison population will increase by about one percent over the next two years. Asked about a current church-based reform proposal to cut the prison population in half in three years, by using treatment instead of prison programs, Wall says he supports the reformers’ goals but doubts they’re attainable.

“We agree with some of the things as far as treatment alternatives. But releasing 11,000 prisoners by 2015: There’s a lot of people who would have something to say about that – it would be the courts and the justices and the juries and the legislature – so that part of it, really, we don’t really see as feasible.”

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Wall took issue with reformers claims that most prisoners are serving time for non-violent offenses. He says more than 60 percent of current inmates were convicted of violent crimes. Wall also told the committee he can save money on inmate hospitalization taking advantage of President Obama’s health care reform act.

“So we’re going to take advantage of every opportunity there to try and lower the amount of money we have to spend on hospitalization. That’s where a big part of the money gets spent as far as health care: roughly $35 million last year. So this will really help bring those costs down, and that’s what we’re going to do, and we’ll be using every tool available to us in that regard.”

Democratic legislators also asked Wall to address safety concerns made by prison guards since they lost their union bargaining rights. Wall says a report responding to these claims will be released soon.