By
The Associated Press
PHOENIX - The state is at least temporarily shelving several prison construction projects because the expected inmates aren't showing up.
Both Gov. Jane Hull and the Legislature's budget drafters are recommending that the state delay a 4,400-bed prison and other projects because of slower than expected growth in the state prison population.
The inmate population had been projected to grow at the rate of 132 inmates a month. But the state instead saw monthly rates of 19 during the last fiscal year and an average that approached 60 in the first half of the current fiscal year.
Corrections officials have cited several reasons for the slower growth rate, primarily a backlog of criminal cases in Maricopa County but also delays in processing crime lab evidence and resolving a legal battle over breath-test evidence in hundreds of cases.
The slower growth rate meant the state prison system had 26,574 inmates in October compared with the expected 29,041.
The new projected growth rate used by both Hull and legislative budget drafters is 75 inmates per month.
Projects affected by proposed delays include a $119 million, 4,400-bed new prison in Tucson. The Legislature wants to delete all the construction money from the current two-year budget, while Hull would leave $21 million to start work in 2003.
The Legislature projects $14 million in savings - Hull puts the total at $12.8 million - from delays in three other projects:
400 private beds for DUI prisoners. Those beds had been scheduled to go into use last year but opening would be delayed until December 2002 under Hull's budget.
A 1,000-bed private prison for foreign inmates. Opening would be delayed a year, until June 2003.
The 4,000-bed Lewis prison south of Buckeye has already been built but not all of it has been opened, largely because of a shortage of corrections officers.
Hull wants to put off the opening of Lewis' final 350 beds until August 2002 and save $6.6 million. The Legislature would delete both years of funding to save $13 million.
Hull's proposed budget contains a hedge if the inmate growth rate rebounds. She wants the Department of Corrections to be able to spend approximately $20 million to start the delayed projects without having to go back to the Legislature.
The Legislature's draft budget does not include that what-if provision. Lawmakers say Hull can come back to them next year for a supplemental appropriation if more money is needed by then.
That and the overall delay make Corrections Director Terry Stewart nervous, though he acknowledges that the low growth rate leaves him unable to justify moving forward with the projects right now.
Stewart said there may not be much notice before the backlog starts to clear in a big way, leaving the state without the time it needs to quickly start the construction projects.
It takes at least six months to award a bid for a private prison and at least a year to build it, Stewart said.
Corrections officials say Maricopa County's backlog held up several thousand criminal cases, though many will not ultimately result in defendants being sentenced to prison.
"This agency could be under tremendous strain if that inmate growth increases significantly when that backlog comes out," Stewart said. "I can't say when that is going to happen nor can I say what the magnitude is going to be."
