news-record.com

Gov. Bev Perdue never demanded that state legislators raise taxes to protect prison cells.

No one would have responded to that during recent budget wrangles.

Instead, the governor made impassioned pleas for protecting classrooms, providing enough money to make sure class sizes would not have to be increased to unmanageable proportions.

The governor made it clear: Educating children is the state's top priority.

Prisoners, on the other hand, rank at the bottom in public opinion. If budget cuts require placing more inmates in a cell, or surpassing a prison's listed capacity, well, serving time is not supposed to be easy, people say.

True. But there is more to consider.

Overcrowded prisons are more dangerous -- not only for inmates, but also for guards. Detention officers deserve to work in as safe an environment as practically possible. It's also more difficult to provide education, training and rehabilitation services for inmates in crowded conditions, reducing the chances that they might become productive citizens when they're released.

The N.C. Department of Correction faces these problems in the wake of sharp budget cuts enacted by the General Assembly this summer. It's closing seven prisons, including the Guilford Correctional Center at McLeansville, relocating inmates and eliminating hundreds of positions.

Decisive actions are needed to respond to declining tax revenues. The department must find ways to house more inmates in fewer facilities with less supervision. If that means fitting two prisoners instead of one in a cell or housing more inmates in dormitory-style barracks, prison officials have no choice, for now. It costs an average of $27,000 a year to keep an inmate in state prison, and that amount must be reduced. Nevertheless, before too long, the governor must call for making prisons a higher priority, along with better probation programs and alternatives to incarceration. That will take political courage, but it's unavoidable.

In Guilford County, Sheriff BJ Barnes fought that battle for a decade. Last year, commissioners finally put a proposal for a new jail on a bond referendum and voters approved it.

No one is thrilled about spending $114 million for a new jail in downtown Greensboro, but Barnes made the case -- again and again -- for its necessity.

Now county officials have to get it done for the budgeted cost or less. Taxpayers said they're willing to fund the project, but they should not tolerate wasteful overruns like those that occurred the last time the county built a jail, in High Point, two decades ago.

It's a sad reality that so much space must be devoted to incarcerating people who pose a danger to the public. But the job should be done right.

Prisoners must be kept in an environment that's safe for themselves and officers and that offers hope of rehabilitation. Yet, building and operating detention facilities should not cost a penny more than what's absolutely required. Prisons will never rate as high as schools.