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Is Alaska’s Corrections System Efficient And Effective?Legislators tour Anchorage facility, which corrections officers say is overcrowdedANCHORAGE—Alaska spends hundreds of millions of dollars on its prison system but is it money well spent? An Anchorage legislator who recently toured the state’s biggest jail seems satisfied the Department of Corrections is doing its job.
Senator Hollis French is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which helps oversee the corrections budget. He and Senator Bill Wielechowski toured the facility Thursday, talking with staff members and officials there.
French says it’s important that money is being spent efficiently and effectively but says, after the tour, he feels more confident that is the case.
One of the issues that still needs to be resolved, according to French, is overcrowding.
The Anchorage Correctional Center averages more than 50 inmates beyond capacity on any given night. And while officials there insist that hasn’t jeopardized safety at the jail, the union that represents correctional officers strongly disagrees.
Another issue that is a concern to both Hollis and Wielechowski is a lack of programs to help inmates transition back into society and stay out of jail. The recidivism rate is more than 60 percent.
Corrections officials acknowledge that’s a problem, but say it is also the national average.
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lee said on Monday, Oct 3 at 11:04 PM
The decrease in the Goose Creek beds from 2400 to 1500 was the brain child of Joe Schmidt , this should say enough
74738121Thomas Fitzgerald Sumlin said on Friday, Sep 2 at 3:21 PM
I like to donate money to The State of Alaska Prision System like I did by giving $5.00 to The Federal Level Prision System earlier this year (2011)my email address id tsumlin1@ccp.edu and sumlinth@hotmail.com. My phone number is 610-803-5883!!! Also, I like to doante money to KTVA CBS 11 news. Please mail me correspondance at P.O. Box 38935, Philadlephia, Pennsylvania 19104; this is the birthplace of Dunesha Barker her maiden name and Bey is her married name, in which she used in 2003 to present!!!
73311857jjj said on Tuesday, Aug 23 at 3:22 PM
FEMA PRISON coming to your area soon!
72809878here to alleviate ignorance said on Friday, Aug 19 at 5:15 AM
I see the usual ignorance at work here. Being in prison in Alaska--or anywhere--is a horrendous proposition. It serves no purpose but to further damage many people who are already damaged by life--abused in a dysfunctional family, mentally ill, suffering from an undiagnosed brain injury that has gone untreated and affected behavior or those that have been caught up in addiction when the usual youthful, but temporary, drug experimentation turned disastrously permanent. The nature and extent of ignorance and sheer meanness exhibited on this page is truly appalling.
72593487Corruption! said on Saturday, Aug 13 at 8:46 PM
It cant be crowded with violent offenders. Most of the really bad guys are getting released into the public.
72313004Anonymous said on Friday, Aug 12 at 7:53 PM
All this was said and recorded at the local Hosp[ital, local clinic and the Kotzebue City Council where I had the Cheif and council talked during the Kotzebue City Council meeting. Hopefully this will nevber happen again, but the only way to fix things is to speak up. you ARE innocent till proven guilty and innocent people are often in such a bad way when they arrive to jail, this needs to be fixxed now.
72279367Chip said on Friday, Aug 12 at 7:50 PM
The next day I asked the Cheif what had been done, a Doctor called? A paramedic? was he taken 1/2 a block to the ER? Nope.Nothing, nada, The Kotzebue Cheif of Police said there was no paper work.........duh? Thats what happens when people dont do their job. Neglect on a sicking scale.We had him examind after his relase, and immediatly got him to the Clinic, where he recived Tylonal #3, muscel relaxers and and instructions on how to unlock the "Frozen shoulder" the Doc and Xray finnaly got on the path to healing.
72279271Chip said on Friday, Aug 12 at 7:46 PM
My son spent 5 days recently in the Kotzebue jail after a fight in which he was hit with a bat he was taking a gun from a guy who was pointing it at people o.As an expired EMT and a current ETT, I examined his shoulder and saw it was dislocated, with swelling and a large black streak from the [paint on the bat.. He went to the clinic before his arrest and was made an apointment for a doctors exame and an Xray. When he arrived in Kotzebue, in front of many many witness's he asked for help, explained that he needed the doctor and the Xray, at the hospital 1/2 a block away. After 4 days , I asked the Kotzebue Police Cheif to call a paramedic, take him to the doctor 1/2 a block away or at least look at him himself.
72279189mcgillagorilla said on Friday, Aug 12 at 6:55 PM
make prision a prision. take a page out of sheriff joe in arizona. put the cons in a tent like the military, take the cigerettes and coffee away feed them two meals a day and give them the choice of working or setting on their cots in the tents. place the prision at the end of the chain also no weight machines and if they do not like it tell them not to come back.
72277744Blazo12 said on Friday, Aug 12 at 3:37 PM
I'm sorry but DOC officials are blowing smoke when they say that the new Goose Creek prison is going to help eleviate the overcrowding WHY? It's simple math currently theres 1080 prisoners in Colorado and Goose Creek has 1200 beds, when the inmates from Colorado return to AK. There will be a -ZERO- net increase in the bed space here in AK......
72271739meme said on Friday, Aug 12 at 1:10 PM
Scary since so many criminals are free!! so many are innocent inside!!
72266741No Name said on Friday, Aug 12 at 12:50 PM
Why should the people in prison get out they have everything they could want in there. I think they should take away there T.V.'s and the cable as well as there games. I think they should pay for medicial and dental as well as we have to out here, The reason why they keep getting out and going back in is because they see how hard it is to live on the outside. So they go do a crime and go back in where they have a free roof over there head 3 squares a day and free medical and dental. Also they get the chance to get a degree will in there. I believe they saw be treated like they are in jail and not on vacation. Now don't get me wrong beginning in prison isn't a nice place to be but here in Alaska we give and give to our prisoniers. I know this because I know of at least 10 guys that have gone back 2 to 3 times. Make it a tougher place for the people to live in the prisons.
72265683You think you Know? said on Friday, Aug 12 at 9:49 AM
It's not about keeping them in longer. It is the fact that it is too easy. Inmates need to work. They need to work hard. They need to be punished hard. You dont keep someone out of jail by giving them the same stuff they have and have access to on the outside. Reward good behavior ok... But i see a ton of things these Men and Women could be doing in our Community. Pick them up and get them out in the woods clearing Fire Breaks. Make it pay! You sentence them to 5 years dont give them a couch to sit on for 5 years. We have plenty of Jobs that need to be done that are considered too expensive and labor intensive. These jobs never end up getting done and when they do they cost us all too much. Put them to work save us all money. Make prisoners pay for the prisons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BY WORKING THE HE LL OUT OF THEM!!!!
72256334H said on Friday, Aug 12 at 9:33 AM
The new prison was made so some people could get richer. They are going to use it as a way to get a private prison in Alaska. A way to stop the high rate of recidivism is to give longer sentences (example- felony DUI 24 months with 20 mounths suspended and a third of the 4 mounths off for good behavior)
72255482dee said on Friday, Aug 12 at 9:25 AM
Any person can divert from doing the things they do that sends them back to jail. It comes from within, having a desire not to go back. God provides the strengh that men and women need to overcome adversities, they just got to apply the mind set not to return to a life of crime. The jails are what they are,(JAIL) housing people with stupid thinking. Train the men and women inside to think differently and the problem may go away and cost the tax payers less.
72255028been there said on Friday, Aug 12 at 8:52 AM
stop blaming the system, i was there 10 yrs, i have been out 10 yrs, incident free, one speeding ticket. my being there in the first place is a whole nother story, but i was so i dealt with it, there was no steak dinner, cable tv, few things to do in a 24 hour period, so all you fools who think its a cake walk. Hold the man responsible, if he wont make the choice to walk the line, where else would you put him? 3 stikes your out? just kill him, i dont know, i know i wont be a 2x er so i dont fear it. the private prison in AZ was no vacation, but it did its job with me, plus I think once you committ the 2nd crime, you likely want the life, so give max terms, we pay for it in taxes or as victims, live with one of these and stop crying.
72253238Lucy said on Friday, Aug 12 at 8:47 AM
The State had a pilot program a few years ago that was Federally funded to attempt to address the recidivism issue. The Serious and Violent Offender Initiative (SVORI) was just getting on a roll in Alaska when the Federal SVORI funding ended. It was small, with staff in Juneau, Seward and Anchorage. The State (Palin Administration with Joe Schmidt as DOC head) did not see fit to continue when the funding ended in June 2007. I've always thought it was better to have a former inmate living next door who had been assisted in planning for life outside the bars while she/he was still incarcerated, than one who was just released to the street and goes back to doing the only thing they know how to do. More crime!
72252962Evonne said on Friday, Aug 12 at 7:37 AM
our jails here is like a vacation I believe jail should be jail be no free hand outs like free medical, free education, free whatever, if they want any these they need to pay for it. there is work in jail to be done and outside too, so they can pay for it just like you and me. we work for what we have just like these people who keep going to jail
72248913Anonymous said on Friday, Aug 12 at 7:09 AM
maybe if prison was more... well like prison... and it was more uncomfortable for the inmates than maybe people would have more motive to try and not be sent back there...
72247388Karlsie said on Friday, Aug 12 at 2:07 AM
The National average has a larger percentage of the population behind bars than any other country in the world. Maybe it's our legal system that needs rehabilitation.
72234157Bob D. said on Thursday, Aug 11 at 11:08 PM
Personally I'd like the name changed from dept. of " corrections " to dept. of punishment.When the prison system changed to rehabilitate it went down the tube. Where feasible ALL prisons should be made to grow as much of their own food as possible. No more sitting around watching TV or working out with weights , etc.
72231844hidden waste said on Thursday, Aug 11 at 10:40 PM
There's a lot of hidden waste in the dept. Shuffle expenses between depts and you hide it. There are so few medical providers statewide now, that inmates are being sent to ERs which is hugely expensive. But, hey, look at how much they are saving on personnel costs!
72231452jjj said on Thursday, Aug 11 at 10:31 PM
time to wake up the sheep!!!!!
72231346jjj said on Thursday, Aug 11 at 10:30 PM
didn't they just build a prison with OUR money and are keeping it empty for now? another FEMA prison? check out REX 84 on google, see for yourself. you can't make this stuff up
72231341Mike said on Thursday, Aug 11 at 10:26 PM
It seems sad to me that the current DOC administration removed the residential drug/alcohol treatment program at Wildwood. How efficient is it to remove the best form of treatment that had been available for more than 10 years? Lets build a bigger prison because the number of men returning to jail because they are untreated is going up ... and up!!
72231296fred stone said on Thursday, Aug 11 at 9:51 PM
it is the national average because that is how the system is set up, to make sure those released back into society fail, there is a whole industry set up around the failures.
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