STATE RANKS DEAD LAST IN FUNDS FOR PRISON SYSTEM

JEFFERSON CITY -- Although the cost is hardly small, amounting to more than a quarter-billion dollars a year, Missouri still ranks dead last among the 50 states for per capita expenditure on a penal system that includes probation and parole service.

In fact, the state's per capita investment in corrections is so low it ranks behind the District of Columbia and the island territory of Guam. That makes it 52nd of 52, according to the latest U.S. Department of Justice statistics.

Missouri may spend only slightly more than $25 a day per prisoner, but the system is still vast and the numbers are overwhelming.

For example, the Department of Corrections is responsible for incarcerating more men and women than live in each of 56 counties in the state. It supervises the paroles and probations of more men and women than live in Jefferson City or Joplin or Cape Girardeau.

In fact, if all the state's parolees and probationers lived in one city, it would be the state's 10th most populated city.

Since the 1954 riot at its maximum security prison, known as "Jeff Town," Missouri has been trying to overcome years of past indifference and neglect.

Only recently did officials address a nagging six-year problem of overtime pay due prison guards, a long-standing bill the state owed its employees that totaled more than $1.9 million.

By the end of this fiscal year, the state estimates it will have a prison population of at least 16,625 men and women, a figure that has grown steadily over the past decade as more and more arrests sent more and more men and women behind bars in the 16-unit system.

With an estimated parole and probation caseload of 44,910, this translates into a total corrections population that is only slightly smaller than the city of Columbia, the state's sixth largest municipality that includes the student body at the University of Missouri campus.

The caseload for each probation and parole officer has dropped to 65, down only slightly from an all-time high of 73 per officer just two years ago.

But as the prison population increases and federal courts order the release of still more inmates, the caseload ratio will soon begin to climb again, and by the end of this century without a major commitment from elected officials, the caseload totals will be astronomical, officials of the division believe.

The vast proportion of the Department of Corrections' budget (84 percent) comes from the state's general revenue fund, with less than 1.5 percent coming from the federal government.

An increase in federal contributions is expected following passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill, but much of this will be earmarked for additional police officers in high-crime urban areas and prevention programs that don't come under the purview of the state agency.

What worries corrections officers is the possibility of deep inroads into general revenue appropriations if the Hancock II amendment is approved in November.

One fiscal officer estimates that cuts wouldn't only prevent the state from adding 3,000 new beds, but would actually reduce the number of existing beds.

This, he says, would attract further federal court orders to release prisoners early and would create a very dangerous public safety problem for the general population.