By Luther Turmelle
New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- When new Gov. Dannel P. Malloy addressed his first graduating class of state correction officers recently at the Maloney Training Center in Cheshire, he made a promise to give corrections workers every consideration in budget deliberations.
But Malloy’s vow is not reflected in his budget plans for the state Department of Correction for the next two years.
“At no time will the fate of the Correction Department, its officers or any of their loved ones be far from my thoughts,” Malloy told the 77 graduates and their families as he discussed the tough economic times the state is facing.
But even before he spoke those words, the governor had already begun pursuing a plan designed to make the department “smaller, leaner and more efficient,” according to Michael P. Lawlor, Malloy’s undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning.
The Department of Correction has a $718 million budget for this fiscal year and sought $783 million for fiscal 2011-2012, Lawlor said. Malloy has proposed giving the department $739 million for next year and wants to reduce the DOC budget to $704 million for 2012-2013, he said.
Lawlor said Malloy is proposing the budget reductions because he wants to make changes to the judicial system that would cut expenses for both the DOC and the state’s court system. Those changes include:
A--Decriminalizing possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana, turning it into an offense that is equivalent to a traffic ticket.
A--Taking individuals found guilty of driving while intoxicated and minor drug violations out of the state’s prisons and sentencing them to house arrest, which would be enforced using technologies such as global positioning systems.
A--Using a system of “risk reduction credits.” Certain categories of prison inmates would be eligible for the credits, which would reduce the amount of time they have to left serve, if they agree to take part in programs such as drug treatment or vocational classes that would theoretically make them less likely to engage in criminal activity on the outside.
Even without any of these programs being implemented, Lawlor said the state’s prison population has gone from a high of 19,900 three years ago to the current 17,700 inmates. Lawlor said that trends suggest the state’s prison population will decline by 400 to 500 inmates over the rest of this year.
“The decline will be even steeper if those changes are enacted,” he said.
Lawlor said it isn’t unreasonable to expect that within a year or two, the state’s inmate population could dip to 16,000. And if that happens, he said, it will give state officials the option “to take two or three (prison) facilities off line.”
“It doesn’t have to be whole facilities; it could be portions of them,” Lawlor said. “And they could be closed in such a way that if they ever needed to be used again in the future, they could be.”
Lawlor noted that the decline in the inmate population has already enabled the state to successfully closed the Webster Correctional Institution in Cheshire last year. Closing the minimum- security prison saves $3.4 million annually.
“It used to be all of the state’s prisons were overcrowded,” Lawlor said. “Now there’s just a little bit of overcrowding here or there, in specific locations.”
And in part because of those pockets of overcrowding, Lawlor said he doesn’t believe a reduction in inmates will mean any layoffs for correction officers. Any officers affected by either full or partial closures of prisons would be redeployed to other facilities, he said.
The DOC has added 215 new correction officers since December, including those sworn in Tuesday. And Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the agency, said correction Commissioner Leo Arnone is seeking Malloy’s permission to enroll another class of correction officers later this year.
Garnett said the new graduates and the next class of trainees are needed because the DOC has seen its average number of retirements more than double in the last several years.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, we built a lot of new facilities in Connecticut and hired a lot of corrections officers to staff them,” Garnett said. “Those officers are now approaching 20 years and are eligible for retirement. So where before we averaged 12 to 15 retirements, we’re now averaging 30 or more a year.”
Copyright 2011 Journal Register Co.