Pubdate: Tue, 26 Apr 2005
Source: Jefferson City News Tribune (MO)
Copyright: 2005 Jefferson City News Tribune
Contact:  http://www.newstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/845
Author: Kelly Wiese, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

PRISON EDUCATION, TREATMENT PROGRAMS TARGETED

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman