STUDY: MISS. PRISON PRIORITIES OFF BASE

More Funding Urged For Education, Prevention Programs

Funding going to private prisons in Mississippi should be diverted into
less costly, more effective rehabilitation programs, according to a study
examining how much Mississippi spends on prisons vs. education.

"This will free up taxpayer dollars for education and prevention programs
that have been shown to deter individuals from committing criminal acts,"
states the report by a Charlotte, N.C-based nonprofit group.

The report, "Education v. Incarceration: A Mississippi Case Study," is
scheduled to be released today at a 1:30 p.m. news conference at the Capitol.

The study by the Grassroots Leadership is one of many examining Southern
states and their policies on spending taxpayer dollars for corrections and
education.

Si Kahn, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, said Mississippi is
one of several states where for-profit private prison companies are most
deeply entrenched.

"We're asking Mississippi and other states to say 'What kind of a future do
we want to build and how best do we build that?,'" Kahn said. "For me, the
lesson is public policy shouldn't be determined by long-term contracts that
benefit a private corporation."

Steve Owen, a spokesman for Corrections Corp. of America, which operates
the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood and the Wilkinson County
facility in Woodville, said private companies were invited to come to the
state to help with an overcrowded prison system, and he disagrees with the
report citing Mississippi as a money-making engine for companies.

"I don't think that the state making a requirement that private companies
reflect a 5 percent cost savings is using profit as a factor in their
corrections policy. The 5 percent savings, that's money that can be devoted
to other important issues, like education," Owen said.

The report notes that lawmakers' funding of private prisons was a source of
friction between them and Gov. Ronnie Musgrove during the 2001 legislative
session.

Mississippi spends more to incarcerate someone ($10,672) than to send
someone to college ($6,871), according to the report. "Mississippi is
prioritizing locking up nonviolent offenders over preserving and expanding
access to higher education for its citizens," the report states.

Other findings of the study:

From 1989 to 1998, Mississippi saw per capita state corrections funding
rise 115 percent. Per capita state higher education funding stagnated
during the same period, increasing by less than 1 percent. b.. There are
almost twice as many African-American men in prison (13,837) as in
four-year colleges and universities (7,330).

House Penitentiary Committee Chairman Bennett Malone, D-Carthage, said the
state has made great strides in the last couple of years to address issues
raised in the report. To reduce the state's growing prison population and
rising costs of incarceration, the Legislature last year changed the law
requiring inmates to serve 85 percent of their jail time. Nonviolent
offenders are eligible for early parole after serving at least one-fourth
of their sentences and must have been sentenced to at least a year.

"I really get frustrated with this type stuff," Malone said about the
report. "Yeah, we got a huge prison population, just like other states
have. But we are modernizing our prison system, not just through
facilities, but through programs."

Malone noted the Legislature created an alcohol and drug center at the
Bolivar County Correctional Center this year and expanded house-arrest programs.