Betsy Russell reports the budget for Idaho’s Department of Corrections for next year cleared the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on a series of mostly unanimous votes today, but there was one exception: The budget for private prisons. That division will rise to $29.8 million next year, all in state general funds, per a contract requirement that per-inmate payments to the Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise for the state, rise by 3 percent next year. “This is all on contract, and this is the rate which is in the contract,” Rep. Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell, the JFAC vice-chair who crafted the budget proposal, told the committee.

Rep. Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello, noted that after the increase, the daily rate per inmate of $42.73 for the first 1,894 inmates will be slightly higher than the state’s rate to house state inmates in county jails. “My question is first of all, are the county placements, are those all full?” she asked. Bolz responded, “Currently we have contracts for about 400-450 beds and we’re over 600 in county jails right now.” He noted that most county jails provide no programs for long-term inmates, such as education, job training or substance-abuse treatment, but the private prison does.