Budget cuts: Governor rejected prison closures because he didn't want to free 1,000 inmates

Budget cuts: Governor rejected prison closures because he didn't want to free 1,000 inmates

By Alan Gustafson • Statesman Journal

Gov. Ted Kulongoski nixed a budget-cutting plan to
close three state prisons because he wasn't willing
to use his power to commute the sentences of
hundreds of convicted felons, a spokesman for the
governor said Thursday.

"He's simply not willing to release close to 1,000
inmates," Rem Nivens said.

Instead, Kulongoski plans to ask the Legislative
Emergency Board to tap into a reserve fund to cover
the $15.3 million cost of keeping the three prisons
open for the rest of the 2009-2011 budget cycle,
which ends June 30, 2011, Nivens said.

The governor also will ask the board to allocate
more than $3 million to forestall proposed cuts in a
community corrections program providing
supervision of low-level felons, he said.

The emergency board is made up of legislative
leaders and budget writers who deal with budget p
roblems when the Legislature isn't in session. The
state currently has about $50 million set aside in
emergency and reserve funds.

Nivens described the planned $18 million "add
back" to the Corrections Department budget as "a
significant request."

When Kulongoski will ask the board to approve the
spending package hasn't been determined. "We're
going to discuss with leadership when to make the
official request," Nivens said.

Two weeks ago, Kulongoski ordered across-the-
board 9 percent state agency spending cuts to erase
a projected $577 million shortfall in the state's
budget.

To meet its $52 million target, the Department of
Corrections proposed closing three prisons: Mill
Creek Correctional Facility and Santiam Correctional
Institution, both in Salem, and the Powder River
Correctional Facility in Baker City. Shut-down
savings were estimated at $15.3 million.

Prison officials called for closing prisons because
they had no other options to save large sums, said J
ennifer Black, a Corrections Department
spokeswoman.

"To get to that big of a reduction, we needed to
close prisons," Black said, referring to the $52
million amount. "The majority of our budget is in
running prisons 24 hours a day. You just can't get
there without that kind of reduction."

In releasing proposed budget cuts Wednesday, state
officials said the Legislature would have to vote to
release the inmates or Kulongoski would have to
commute their sentences.

However, both options raised thorny issues.

Commuting the sentences of hundreds of state
prisoners would have infuriated many Oregonians.
It also would have set into motion a complex,
drawn-out process.

"You could commute each inmate's sentence. It
wouldn't be something that would happen
overnight," Nivens said. "There's a process in which everyone would have to apply for commutation.
Then after the applications are received, I believe
(the governor) has to wait 30 days before he acts on
that. There are also processes in which victims can come forward and have a say. So it would not by any stretch be an overnight process."

Without governor-approved commutations to clear
out prisons, it would take extraordinary legislative
action to free inmates and close prisons. One
formidable obstacle: Measure 11, a get-tough-on-
crime initiative passed by Oregon voters in 1994,
which imposed mandatory minimum sentences for
offenders convicted of violent crimes.

Overturning the strict sentencing law would take a
two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

agustafs@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6709