Editorial: Overcrowded prisons a crisis

Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

With better planning by the governor and Legislature, the state could have avoided the jam it now finds itself in regarding prisons.

Glen Whorton, who is retiring later this month as the director of the Corrections Department, told the Legislature last week that because of extreme overcrowding, there is an urgent need for hundreds of temporary cells. He asked for $22.4 million, which would allow for the purchase of modular buildings that could be quickly set up at prison sites.

Whorton said the overcrowding is getting so bad that if money for the temporary cells is not forthcoming, the prison system could fall under the control of a federal court within a year. The director lamented the position that the prison system is in, saying that while the temporary cells are desperately needed, they pose more of a security challenge than regular cells.

Such acute prison overcrowding did not happen overnight. It has been building for years. Instead of planning - and paying - for incremental expansions of the prisons, the state procrastinated and now there is a crisis that demands immediate alleviation through less-secure temporary buildings.

Had prisons been expanded according to projections of inmate populations, the cost of temporary cells could have been avoided, and overcrowding, with its attendant safety issues, could have been prevented.

All that the temporary cells would provide is a temporary solution. What is really required to provide the necessary space is a $300 million prison construction program, according to the Corrections Department.

A good portion of that money should be allocated during the current session of the Legislature. This is because projections show that the state prison population, now standing at nearly 13,000 inmates, will double over the next decade.

The state must do more than just furnish temporary cells. If it doesn't, new, permanent construction will have to be undertaken in the future, when the cost of land, labor and supplies will have increased.