

Due to restrictionsĪssociated with such issues as gender, protection and custody levels, noĬorrectional system can make maximum use of all available beds, and Operational capacity of 4,085 by July 2007. In the 15 years since 1992 the average daily population had risenīy 35 percent until it was 5 percent shy of the agency's total Previous crisis, looked to Yogi Berra when he wrote, "It's Tears, dollars spent and cost in public credibility, RIDOC was on the Of the 21st century, it had consumed this additional bed space, andĬrowding began to make headlines again. The inmate population continued to grow until, by the early years The department the breathing room to settle the federal court order Forced releases were halted and the expanded capacity afforded At a tremendous cost to the taxpayers, the bleeding was Millions of dollars in construction-and millions more in operationalĮxpenses down the line-boosted jail and prison capacity by 50 percentĪs of 1992. Massive building campaign to add more beds to the system. Meanwhile, in a race against time, the state had embarked on a The perception of disarray in the correctional system on the part of Mandate to abruptly release hundreds of inmates. Of a decade ago, pressure from the federal bench culminated in the By 1990, with a population more than three times that Number of inmates compromised the gains that had been made in the Longstanding federal court order regarding conditions of confinement,įound itself mired in additional decrees from the court as the rising The department, which had been on the verge of resolving a Violators be held without bail, the inmate population climbed by 85 On drugs" and prosecutorial demands that all potential probation Fueled by statutory changes resulting from the "war

The repercussions were particularly severe in the

Prisons, jails, probation and parole services, the agency felt the As a unified correctional system encompassing the state's Population overwhelmed the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Retrieved from ĭuring the second half of the 1980s, a surge in the inmate
#RIDOC DISCHARGE PROGRAM FREE#
MLA style: "Rhode Island halts growth in the inmate population while increasing public safety." The Free Library.
