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DOC officials: inmate population stabilizing at 84% of capacity; Lemon Creek repairs and regional jails affect bed availability
Summary
Department of Corrections officials told a House finance subcommittee that the statewide inmate population is about 84% of general capacity, but offline units, gender and classification needs and facility repairs mean available beds are constrained; officials gave details about community jails, CRC bed counts, and sentenced electronic monitoring.
Department of Corrections officials told the House Finance Committee’s Department of Corrections subcommittee on Feb. 11 that while the statewide custody population has fallen from expected growth and now sits at roughly 84% of general capacity, that figure masks important constraints from offline units, classification needs and sex-designated housing.
Director of Institutions Zane Niswonger told the panel that after population growth following 2019’s HB 49 the department had been on track to exceed capacity; the department reopened Palmer Correctional Center in FY2023 to address overcrowding but has since seen population growth slow. Niswonger said the department had converted nonhousing spaces into living units during the growth period and later took some Lemon Creek units offline for significant structural repairs.
"We were converting gymnasiums and multi use areas and hobby shops into living units to try to accommodate the growing population," Niswonger said, describing earlier efforts to expand temporary capacity. He told the committee that DOC remains at about "84% of our general capacity" but cautioned that percentage does not translate directly into spare beds because of gender separation, medical and mental-health needs and other classification reasons.
Deputy Director Sydney (Sid) Wood told members the department can provide detailed utilization reports on community jails, and highlighted program and facility differences across the state. The department said there are now 14 community jails in use after the closure of the Seward city jail earlier this budget cycle, and that community jails serve rural areas that do not have state-run institutions.
On community residential centers (CRCs), the department said there are seven CRC contracts covering 461 total beds, and that as of January those contracts reported 394 beds occupied. For the sentenced electronic monitoring program, DOC reported 234 offenders on the sentence EM caseload at the end of the prior month and said the program is resource-driven and requires eligible applicants and voluntary participation.
Deputy Director Wood answered a line of questioning about EM costs and length of supervision. "38.3 days is the average length of time on sentence electronic monitoring," Wood said. The department also told the subcommittee that electronic-monitoring participants are generally charged an average daily fee shown on the department's cost-of-care slide; a department presenter stated an example rate of "$35.94" per day for the sentence EM daily cost and noted the department offers fee waivers "so we are not gonna deny someone based on the ability to pay."
Members asked for additional data on effectiveness and recidivism outcomes for different placements (institutional custody, community residential centers, electronic monitoring and probation). DOC staff said some outcome data exists — for example, DOC noted a higher success rate among sentence-EM participants who choose to participate and that CRCs track returns-to-custody and completions — and the department agreed to provide additional breakdowns on recidivism and utilization.
Facility-specific notes in the presentation included: Lemon Creek Correctional Center is undergoing repairs with a scheduled reopening date of July 1; Palmer Correctional Center reopened in FY2023; Goose Creek is the state's newest and largest facility and has functioned as overflow for pretrial populations; Spring Creek is the state's primary maximum-security prison but maintains a small booking area and transports many arrestees to Wildwood for longer-term housing.
Why it matters: the 84% statewide figure masks operational constraints that limit the department's ability to consolidate beds or close facilities without further analysis, a point several committee members raised. DOC staff said the finance committee had previously asked for more granular analyses about offline beds, pretrial populations and regional impacts and that the department will provide additional data to help the committee evaluate potential consolidation or cost-saving scenarios.
The subcommittee asked for follow-up reports on pretrial populations, the distribution and duration of EM placements, and a more detailed account of beds offline at Lemon Creek and other facilities.
