Dealing with crowded prisons

bkrueger — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:11:47 -0400

State lawmakers showed little interest today in avoiding another big prison construction bill this session.

In fact, they laughed when Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Pembroke Democrat, asked whether they would look at legislation that spends more on prevention and less on incarceration, reports Dan Kane.

"Is there anyone that thinks we're going to change our mode of operation?" Sutton asked, after lawmakers listened to a report of options to deal with a rapidly growing prison population.

Today, the state prison system is again out of space. Prisons Director Boyd Bennett said he has sent notice to county jails that they will have to hold convicted and sentenced inmates until a new 1,500 bed prison opens up in Columbus County at the end of summer.

The prison, though, is only a temporary fix. Projections show that the system could be 1,800 inmates over capacity by 2012.