Dealing with crowded prisons

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.

Read more after the jump.

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Doug Holbrook, a fiscal analyst for the legislature, told lawmakers their options include spending up to $120 million on prison expansions, approving sentencing reductions that would eliminate the need for 1,000 beds by 2013, or a combination of both.

Legislation to create the sentencing reductions has languished. No lawmakers at the meeting expressed an interest in taking them up, though one Rep. Annie Mobley, an Ahoskie Democrat, suggested they look at Texas' efforts to curb a growing prison population.

Lawmakers instead asked about double bunking more inmates, seeing if more terminally ill inmates could be released, and the cost of delays in executing inmates.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Cary Republican, said there is a need for more prison cells.

"Here in Raleigh we've had a dramatic increase just in the last year in property crimes," Dollar said.

"I had a lengthy conversation with a police detective and he told me basically what we have is a catch and release program because we have no prison deterrent."

Gov. Mike Easley's budget proposal calls for borrowing $63 million without voter approval to add a combined 1,500 beds at four state prisons.

The prison system is expected to surpass 40,000 inmates next year. Bennett said the increase is largely linked to general population growth in the state.