Senate panel cuts state prison funds

A plan to remove limits on the number of inmates the state Department of Corrections will accept from county jails could be in jeopardy after the Senate Finance Committee on Friday reduced the agency's funding increase.

The committee included $1.9 million for additional beds and staffing to remove the quotas, but cut $4.5 million from other DOC functions.

"I was shocked," Corrections Director Jon Ozmint said. "While we still hope to lift the quotas, suddenly our focus must shift from the quota issue to managing the increased public safety risks and budget pressures created by these cuts."

The quotas have been a source of contention between Ozmint and jail directors across the state since he implemented them on Jan. 1. The limits have added to the overcrowding problem at the Spartanburg County jail, causing Director Larry Powers in March to send Ozmint a bill for $65,000 - money he says the county is owed for caring for state prisoners.

Spartanburg County is allowed to send 16 men and three women weekly. As of Friday, Director Larry Powers said the county had just three state inmates awaiting transfer.

Ozmint said he imposed the quotas to put all the state's jails on the same footing. He said some counties already had limits on the number of prisoners they could send to the state each week while others, such as Spartanburg and Greenville, did not.

A potential solution was contingent on the Senate going along with a $10.7 million funding increase the House included in its budget, and adding $1.9 million for additional beds and staff, Ozmint said. But the Senate Finance Committee cut $3 million from the DOC's maintenance appropriation and $1.5 million from its vehicle fund.

"From worn out locks, to broken radios and cameras, to staff and inmates traveling in unsafe and unreliable vehicles, these cuts to our highest priority requests and our most basic safety needs are a recipe for disaster," Ozmint said.

Sen. Glenn Reese, a member of the finance committee, said the quotas should still come off because the department was getting the money it had asked for to be able to remove them.

"These are cuts for maintenance, communications and vehicles," said Reese, D-Boiling Springs.

"They shouldn't affect the operations of the prisons."

Reese said it's possible the DOC could get the money back when Senate and House negotiators meet to hammer out the final budget.

Gov. Mark Sanford was disappointed by the development, spokesman Joel Sawyer said. Sawyer said Sanford was hopeful a solution to the quota issue would have been worked out in the budget process.

"Quite frankly, at this level of funding addressing the quotas will be the last thing the Department of Corrections has to worry about," Sawyer said. "If counties want to address the problem they need to turn their attention away from the Department of Corrections and turn it toward the Senate."

Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7274 or bob.dalton@shj.com.