INMATE GROWTH RATE DECLINING

Minnesota's prison population isn't growing as fast as once feared,
and state corrections officials are now rethinking the need for a $41
million expansion of the Faribault prison.

This year the prison population grew by its slowest rate since 2001.

Although the state's prison population did grow -- it increased by
375 prisoners this year, or 4.5 percent -- that increase is about
half what officials had anticipated, according to new population
projections released Wednesday.

In the previous two years, the population grew by almost 20 percent
as prisons filled with methamphetamine offenders and other criminals
at a startling pace, prompting calls for new prison construction from
state officials.

But now the ranks of new meth offenders have thinned. In fact, the
number of inmates admitted to prison for the first time, who tend to
have the longest sentences, decreased by 1 percent in the past year,
Department of Corrections officials say.

Meanwhile, thanks to lawmakers' recent decisions, soon there will be
more room for drug offenders in a special program that requires they
undergo intensive treatment and supervision in exchange for early release.

Earlier this year, as prison officials were decrying their lack of
space to house incoming prisoners, state lawmakers and the governor
approved a request from the Corrections Department for $85 million to
add space at the Faribault prison.

It was the single biggest building request lawmakers approved in this
year's bonding bill for state construction projects.

Officials had been set to ask for another $41 million for Faribault
when the Legislature reconvenes early next year, but the new figures
released Wednesday might shrink that request.

The original request would have improved security, renovated the
prison's geriatric unit and increased the number of beds at the
southern Minnesota prison from 1,941 to 2,286 with two new living
units. The new request to lawmakers -- still being worked out --
might include just one new living unit or just renovation of the unit
for elderly prisoners.

"We're just trying to be responsible and make sure (lawmakers) know
that it isn't quite the crisis it was," said Corrections Commissioner
Joan Fabian.

The commissioner said the state still will need to redo and expand
Faribault eventually but perhaps just not yet, given the slowed
prison population expectations.

But the trends behind Wednesday's projections might change.

Perhaps they'll even change today, Fabian suggested, when the state's
Sentencing Guidelines Commission meets to work out details of new sex
offender sentences.

Projections, after all, said Dan Storkamp, the Department of
Corrections' director of information and technology, are only a
snapshot in time based on current trends, practices and laws.

"A good projectionist always says, 'I'm always wrong. Here's why,' " he said.