Wisconsin’s coronavirus-related budget crunch will limit the state’s ability to find room for inmates in the state’s prisons, former Wisconsin Department of Corrections assistant deputy secretary Patrick Hughes wrote at the Badger Institute.
“If new prison construction were ever a viable option for addressing longstanding overcrowding, fiscal woes arising from the pandemic make that increasingly untenable,” Hughes wrote.
Hughes says the headcount in the state’s prisons on March 20 was 23,416 people. That was before DOC tried to cut its numbers because of the coronavirus.
“As part of a strategy to minimize COVID-19 infections, DOC shortly after that refused to accept new inmates from county jails, halted almost all revocations and moved up release dates when possible,” Hughes noted. “As a result, Wisconsin’s prison population has declined by almost 1,600 inmates.
Hughes expects Wisconsin’s prison population to only grow. He said the consulting firm Mead/Hunt estimated the inmate population could swell to 28,200 people in 10 years.
“Absent a reduction or reversal of the projected growth in new prisoners or finding someplace else to house them, the state will be forced to begin a large, expensive prison construction program,” Hughes said.
That is money that Wisconsin doesn’t have.
The latest revenue estimates show tax collections in April were $870 million below last year’s numbers. There are expectations that Wisconsin could see a $1 billion budget hole.
Hughes says that’s only going to make things worse.
“A single new $500 million maximum security prison alone would consume 27% of the state’s capital budget,” Hughes said. “That would fall far short of solving overcrowding issues.”
Hughes concluded his piece with the thought that if there is not enough money, Wisconsin needs to send fewer people to prison.
“Funding even one prison will crowd out many of the state’s other needs and still leave Wisconsin with overcrowded cells, too few institutions and ultimately substantially increased taxes,” Hughes wrote. “Unless legislators, the governor and the DOC find a way to do what other states have done: responsibly decrease the number of inmates without imperiling safety.”
