Prison Budget Approved by Committee

The Ways and Means Committee approved the $1.3 billion budget for the Oregon Department of Corrections in May. This amount is $63 million less than the amount requested in the Governor’s Recommended Budget and $195 million more than the legislature approved for the current two year budget cycle. The DOC’s budget bill is called SB 5505.

The $1.3 billion budget almost doubles the amount allocated to drug and alcohol treatment programs in prison from $6.9 million in the 2005-2007 budget to $12.8 million in the proposed budget.

The Ways and Means Committee also approved $10.9 million to design Oregon’s next prison. This amount, along with money for prison maintenance projects, is not included in SB 5505 but is included in a separate budget for capital expenses. This means that in reality the amount of taxpayer dollars going to Oregon’s prisons is much higher than the $1.3 billion Department of Corrections budget.

This news brief is based on a story from the on-line edition of the Oregonian, Committee Approves Prison Budget. If the link is broken, check the newspaper’s archives.