By Travis Fain
Daily Press
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The Virginia Department of Corrections took the biggest hit, by far, earlier this year when the state rolled back spending to account for missed revenue projections.
The department agreed to cover 506 of the up to 565 layoffs called for in the new budget plan, and to close three facilities.
It’s still a behemoth in state government, though, with a budget of $1.1 billion and some 12,000 employees.
The department, of course, oversees state prisons. This is also where much of the funding lives for parole and probation programs, which will get about $85.3 million this year.
Prison food services run the state about $42.6 million a year. Medical and clinical services nearly top $157 million. The state is trying to shift some of those costs by signing inmates who qualify up for Medicaid. That way the federal government covers half their medical costs.
The state is also developing an electronic health records system for inmates, and it set aside $550,000 this year, and the same amount next year, for a telemedicine program. That’s where doctors talk to patients from afar, using a webcam.
There’s $250,000 in the budget for a culinary arts program training inmates to serve “agency staff and the general public.” The program is meant to be self-sustaining, running off revenue it generates.
The budget used to contemplate a change next year at Lawrenceville Correctional Center, the state’s only privately run prison. Gov. Bob McDonnell’s recommendation, back in December, was to have the department rebid the contract and to analyze the costs of keeping private management versus having the department run things.
That language was removed from the budget before it was finalized after the department said that a new contract would likely cost more than the existing one, according to the relevant budget amendment.