NewsApril 26, 2005
Prison education, treatment programs face cuts
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Violent inmates seeking to better themselves through education classes or substance abuse treatment may have to wait longer for those services under the proposed state budget. The Department of Corrections plans to close three of the five education programs, which help inmates acquire their high school equivalency degrees, at the state's prisons for the most serious offenders...
Kelly Wiese ~ The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Violent inmates seeking to better themselves through education classes or substance abuse treatment may have to wait longer for those services under the proposed state budget.
The Department of Corrections plans to close three of the five education programs, which help inmates acquire their high school equivalency degrees, at the state's prisons for the most serious offenders.
The budget plan would end programs at maximum-security prisons in Cameron, Potosi and Jefferson City and cancel a $423,000 contract with Lincoln University to run the program at the minimum security prison in Tipton. Instead, some Department of Corrections workers who had run the program in Jefferson City would be transferred to Tipton. Maximum-security prisons at Charleston and Licking will still have the program.
All told, the budget for corrections' education and treatment services would drop from the current $24.2 million to $18.7 million in the fiscal year starting July 1.
Corrections Department spokesman John Fougere said Monday that eliminating the services at maximum security prisons would save the state money while ensuring that prisoners closer to their release dates still could participate.
College contract
Missouri Western State College has the contract to run the Cameron education program, and Chris Shove, who oversees it, said closing it would be a shame because of how much it helps inmates.
"We do know that the inmates that do receive some kind of education, it greatly reduces their recidivism," he said. "It's one way to lower the inmate population so that people don't continue coming back in the institutions, that they actually find viable work and are able to start a real career."
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Inmates at maximum security prisons could participate in education or substance abuse classes if they are transferred to the remaining maximum-security or lower-level prisons, he said. State law requires inmates to earn, or attempt to earn, a high school or equivalency degree before being paroled.
The prison program cuts are included in both the House and Senate budget plans for the fiscal year starting July 1. The House already has passed its version of the budget, and the Senate was expected to take up the budget Tuesday.
Fougere said the programs already have begun winding down in anticipation of the cuts.
The closings will cause the prison system to rely even more on volunteers to offer some educational services, Fougere said.
He said other programs, such as classes focusing on crime's impact on victims, could be expanded.
Treatment program
The budget also would close the substance abuse treatment program in Jefferson City and move 12 workers from there to handle the program now run at the minimum security Maryville institution under a $1 million contract with Northwest Missouri State University.
Northwest Missouri State officials said the end of their contract would cost 25 people their jobs by May 31. The university said it's trying to help those people with unemployment benefits and job training.
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