We've been hearing a lot lately about ways to fix Alaska's prison system. What we found out is that a lot of those cries to reform Alaska's prison system are coming from corrections officials themselves.

Walk down the halls of Anchorage's 6th Avenue Jail and corrections officials see lots of familiar faces. Many of these men have been here before. In fact, the latest figures show that two thirds of prisoners released will be back in Alaska's jails within three years--a figure that frustrates everyone, including police.

"They get tired of arresting the same person over and over. They don't like arresting someone for a new crime who was recently coming out of the system. And I think the public is ready for a different approach and some better answers than that," said Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt.

Corrections Commissioner Schmidt has some specific ideas on how to break the cycle of repeat offenders. It starts with building more beds. Schmidt says prisons are so crowded now that when a prisoner is eligible to get out early because of good behavior, he always gets it--whether his behavior is good or not. That's a change from in the past.

"They had to earn it, as the law intended. They had to show a release plan. They had to be employable. Maybe they had to show a release plan to the superintendent, had to demonstrate their ability to succeed when they get out. When the prison system is crowded all the time, you end up not having the luxury to force prisoners to do that," said Schmidt.

Schmidt is asking the Legislature for about three million dollars to put programs in place that can help prisoners succeed once they get out. And he says a vital part will be more treatment for substance abuse.

"Ninety-five percent of our people are getting out. So that when the stress does get to them from life, we want them to have some different options, other than diving back into substance abuse and right back into prison, cause that's where

Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt
that leads," said Schmidt.

Schmidt says many of the changes he has in mind won't come overnight, but he's convinced that helping prisoners while they are still in prison can make a big difference with repeat offenders.

"I think it can break the cycle, because we are going to cause the prisoners to be ready for release to a much higher level than we can right now," said Schmidt.

Schmidt says he's pleased that more prison beds are coming with the new facility that is being built at Point McKenzie, however that facility won't be finished until the year 2012.

To contact Lauren, call 907-273-3186.