So far, the votes in JFAC this morning on the various pieces of the prison budget all have been unanimous. The Corrections Department budget is divided up into nine different divisions, but overall, the budget plan crafted by legislative budget writers would trim general funds for prisons by 2 percent from this year's level, and cut overall funds by half a percent. Still, the number of inmates is rising - and the budget as crafted, when compared to projections for numbers of inmates - would result in a $2.5 million deficit by the end of the year, even with moves like delaying the opening of the Correctional Alternative Placement Facility from June to next September, when it'd be slowly opened in phases, moving in 25 inmates a week. If a shortfall happens, lawmakers would have to fund it through a supplemental appropriation next year. They've already been warned that further prison funding cuts would require releasing inmates.

"I think we all realize that we're in a very difficult financial situation in the state, and this budget, like all the other budgets, will be difficult to work through," said JFAC Vice-Chair Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell, who helped craft the budget. Idaho was able to save money at the prisons from 2007 to 2009 because inmate growth stalled and numbers actually dropped, but now they're on the rise again. "We've actually picked up some 79 inmates in the last two weeks," Bolz said. "We are now at 100 percent capacity." This year's prison budget showed a 5.1 percent cut in funding from the previous year.