Budget crunch may delay inmate boom in Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. - A freeze in money for a tougher new law against thieves and drug dealers will likely save taxpayers millions, forestall construction of one new prison and hold off an expected surge of inmates in the state's prison system.

The Oregonian reported that because lawmakers froze most of the tougher provisions in voter-approved Measure 57, an expected inmate boom is delayed by about four years.

Legislators cut nearly one-third of the $74 million bill. The measure targeted career property felons and drug dealers.

But prosecutors said that lawmakers overreacted at cost estimates and are hindering their efforts to put criminals behind bars.

Their view is backed by a recent report by state forecasters, who said that even if the law would have been left alone, the expected increase in prison populations would have been smaller than once thought.

Prosecutors and judges were less aggressive than expected through 2009 in using the tools provided by Measure 57. Not as many people were sentenced and those sent to prison were sent there on shorter sentences than expected, a new report by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis said.

The state had forecast that Oregon's prison population would hit 15,000 this year, but the new forecast says that the state's prison system won't hit that mark until 2014.

Moreover, the Oregon District Attorneys Association concluded in a report that the state's budget for handling Measure 57 could be $50 million too high - an overestimate they say led to lawmakers enacting the freeze.

The suspension will last until 2012. The smaller-than-expected prison population led the Corrections Department to postpone construction plans on a 532-bed prison in Junction City, which was slated to open in 2013.