State lawmakers got their first look today at a brewing crisis in the Correction Department as projections indicate the state will not be able to build its way out of a surge in the inmate population over the decade.

The large print in the report delivered to lawmakers said it all: "The State faces a serious prison bed shortage in the next year, and a huge deficit in the long term," Dan Kane reports.

They learned:

* They can not build or expand space fast enough to house the roughly 2,300 additional inmates expected to arrive by the end of the next fiscal year;

* Counties do not have enough jail cells to house the projected backlog; and

* That adopting some sentence-reduction suggestions that have been offered in recent years also may not slow the growth soon enough.

More after the jump.

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