ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: STATE PRISON CLOSINGS

As a result of recent policy changes and pressures brought on by the fiscal crisis, state lawmakers are closing prisons after 40 years of record prison expansion. Declining prison populations in a number of states have resulted in excess prison capacity. During 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported the first decline in the overall state prison population since 1977 and found 24 states had reduced prison populations during 2009.

In 2011 at least thirteen states have closed prison institutions or are contemplating doing so,
potentially reducing prison capacity by over 14,793 beds. Since 2002, Michigan has led the
nation in this regard. The state has closed 21 facilities, including prison camps, as a result of
sentencing and parole reforms. Overall, the state has reduced capacity by over 12,000 beds for a total cost savings of $339 million.1 Other states, including New Jersey and Kansas, have also closed prisons in recent years amid changes in sentencing policy and parole decision making that have resulted in a decline in state prison populations. Maryland also reduced prison capacity when it closed the Maryland House of Corrections in 2007 by transferring 850 prisoners to other prisons.2

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The Fiscal Crisis in Corrections: Rethinking Policies and Practices

New Report from the Vera Institute

Declining revenues from the worst fiscal crisis in decades are forcing many states to make across the board budget cuts. Even departments of corrections and public safety, long considered off limits, are affected.

A new report from Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections highlights the impact of these cuts and the ways officials are rising to the challenge of lowering spending while maintaining—and in some cases enhancing—public safety. The findings are based on a survey of enacted FY2010 state budgets and recent legislation, which found at least 22 states reversing the trend of recent decades and cutting corrections spending.
Findings include:

• At least 28 states are reducing staff, instituting hiring freezes, reducing salaries or benefits, and/or eliminating pay increases.
• An increasing number of states are identifying groups of people who can be safely released after serving shorter terms behind bars.
• At least 20 states are closing facilities/reducing beds or delaying expansion/construction of new facilities.
  

This report was funded by the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States.

To download this report visit Vera’s web site at www.vera.org/content/fiscal-crisis-corrections-rethinking-policies-and-practices-1.

The Vera Institute of Justice is an independent nonprofit organization that combines expertise in research, demonstration projects, and technical assistance to help leaders in government and civil society improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety.

Budget woes prompt states to rethink prison policy

By DAVID CRARYAP National WriterPosted: Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009
NEW YORK

Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision.

Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up to one of biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into place cost-saving reforms that have struggled to win political support in the tough-on-crime climate of recent decades.

"Prior to this fiscal crisis, legislators could tinker around the edges - but we're now well past the tinkering stage," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration.

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