Prisons may release inmates because of budget

Posted at: 10/28/2009 5:32 PM | Updated at: 10/29/2009 7:40 AM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4; Matthew Kappus, KOB.com

The state corrections department says budget cuts will force them to close two prisons and let some inmates out on early release.

The Women’s Prison at Grants and the Roswell Correctional Center will have to shut down if the governor signs the budget-slashing bill the legislature passed in special session last week. So says Corrections Secretary Joe Williams.

Close to 600 convicts are in the Women’s Prison. Some would be transferred, some would get out on early release.

The Roswell prison has 270 convicts who could also be transferred or released. As many as 660 convicts throughout the prison system could walk on early release if the two prisons close.

"We’re doing everything we can to manage this budget and live within our means,” said Secretary Williams. “But if we're faced with this high of a percentage, which is about $21 million, we're going to have to shut down facilities."

Gov. Bill Richardson said he is concerned about the public safety implications.

“I'm concerned about a legislature that was under a lot of pressure. We have a budget shortfall, may have poorly drafted some measures, unintended consequences," he said.

The legislature slashed all state agencies by just over 7.5 percent trying to minimize cuts to public schools in an effort to carve hundreds of millions out of the state’s recession-ravaged revenues.

The governor says he is worried about cuts in Medicaid and other programs too. He has until Nov. 12 to sign or veto the budget-cutting legislation or use a line-item veto to save certain programs from the budget axe.

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