ALAN SUDERMAN Associated Press Writer
HELENA Pieces of Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s plan to overhaul the way Montana deals with its prisoners cleared their first hurdle Tuesday. The Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections and Public Safety voted to approve $3.2 million for 36 new probation and parole officers, a $2.6 million upgrade on communications equipment, and more than a $1 million on drug-treatment counseling for paroled prisoners. The committee, consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans, unanimously approved 32 of the 34 items in the governor’s corrections budget. Two items passed on votes of 5- 1. Two motions by Democrats for additional spending not in the governor’s budget failed. “We got a budget here and we don’t want to be increasing it,” said Committee Chairman Ray Hawk, Rflorence. Most of the heavy lifting in the committee will come at today’s meeting. The committee postponed voting on multimillion dollar special proposals for prerelease, drug-treatment and other alternative-to-prison facilities. Republicans on the committee did not want to vote on any of those proposals until there was a consensus on how many prisoners would use those facilities. The Legislative Fiscal Division estimates that the Department of Corrections is budgeting for more beds than it has prisoners in the special programs. But officials at the Department of Corrections said their numbers add up when looking at the entire prisoner population as a whole, which they said is constantly shifting programs. “You can’t look at corrections isolating one section from another,” said communications director Bob Anez. Still, Anez said, there was reason to be pleased with Tuesday’s results. “Let’s not dismiss what they did today,” he said. “Those are big things.”
