Arizona Finds Room for More Inmates in $8.5B Budget

DALLAS — As neighboring states seek ways to reduce prison costs, Arizona plans to continue to build public and private cells under an $8.5 billion budget headed for final legislative approval in Phoenix.

The budget approved by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer and GOP legislative leaders balances spending for fiscal 2013 beginning July 1, but projects a deficit of $175 million in 2015.

After four straight years of shortfalls, the proposed budget represents the second in a row that balances with room to spare.

“By way of this agreement, the state will spend nearly $200 million more for K-12 and higher education, hire additional public safety and correctional officers, and create a special investigative unit to target the highest-priority cases of potential child abuse and neglect,” Brewer said in a statement after reaching agreement with legislative leaders.

After one of the worst housing market collapses in the nation and a prolonged decline in tourism revenues, the state is showing signs of recovery.

To help balance the budget, Arizona plans to shift $50 million from a $97.7 million mortgage-settlement fund to its general fund, and use the money for purposes other than helping struggling homeowners.

“With this plan, we are putting into action the wisdom of conservative principles that have helped bring our state back from the brink of fiscal ruin,” Brewer said.

While neighboring Colorado is preparing to close a major state prison for savings, Arizona’s budget would provide $50 million for a new public prison and $17.9 million for another private lockup.

The Arizona Department of Corrections, with a fiscal 2012 appropriated budget of nearly $1 billion and 10,000 employees, is one of the largest departments in the state government.

Recent studies have placed Arizona in the top four states in percentage of budget allocated to corrections.

Between 2001 and 2011, Arizona’s prison population grew 34.4%, according to the DOC.

Brewer has made public safety one of her major issues, decrying what she called lack of border control by the federal government and rampant crime throughout the state.

To boost enforcement of federal immigration law, Brewer advocated and signed Senate Bill 1072, which allows local law enforcement to arrest people who cannot prove their U.S. citizenship.

That law is under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“In FY 2002, the state of Arizona’s general fund investment for universities was 40% higher than its expenditures for the Arizona Department of Corrections,” according to a recent report from the centrist Grand Canyon Institute.

“During the decade that followed, nominal (current dollars) corrections spending rose 75%, while universities received nominal cuts of 11.1%. Consequently, in FY 2012, Arizona is now spending 40%  more on corrections than on universities,” the report stated.

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