Some legislators are learning that paying for tough talk can sometimes make you gag.
For the past three years, both the Legislature and Gov. Mike Leavitt have orated about cracking down on crime and playing hard-ball with criminals, even if they're children.Many made promises to ante up when it comes to ensuring residents' safety in their neighborhoods. Getting "tough" on crime seemed to be everyone's No. 1 priority.
To "get tough," they enacted new laws, created new programs and ponied up millions for new jails and prisons.
But this week, in more than three days of budget hearings, Corrections officials have testified that locking people up - even without treating them - is expensive.
Both Corrections and Youth Corrections agencies have grown at rates that require budget increases that exceed the amount that Utah's frugal Legislature wants to pay. The state's number of convicted criminals grew at record rates and to record heights.
Adult Corrections grew at an unprecedented rate of 12 percent last year. They're responsible for almost 4,000 criminals who are behind bars. That doesn't include the more than 10,000 people on parole.
Youth Corrections currently has custody of 985 children. Their average daily population has increased 78 percent in the past four years.
"Every time you (the Legislature) meet and go home, we go back and calculate and see what you did to us," said Corrections Director Lane McCotter.
For example, one of the crown jewels of last year's legislative session was the Serious Youth Offender law, which makes it easier to send violent, teenage criminals into the adult system. The Legislature only funded half a year, reasoning that the law would only be in effect for six months so the department wouldn't need a year's worth of money.
Sound a little like those ads that offer consumers a chance to buy now, pay later? Well, that's sort of what Corrections officials are thinking. The law has been passed, but now there's no money to keep the criminals behind bars.
Saying both agencies lack bed space has been so common in recent years that it's become cliche. While some argue the need for more secure or lock-up bed space is critical, others argue that the state's money is more wisely spent on early intervention or rehabilitative programs.
A needs study conducted by Carter Gobal Associates concluded Adult Corrections needs slightly more than 200 medium security beds and more than 1,000 minimum security beds in the next few years.
But McCotter said he needs maximum security beds, pointing out that some of his only empty beds in the entire system are at the minimum security facility Lone Peak.
"I don't have enough good guys to put out there and probably never will," he said. "We've pulled all the rabbits out of a hat we know how to. . . . I plead with you to reconsider. . . . We're kind of desperate."
So desperate in fact, that they sent 100 inmates to privately run facilities in Texas. In the seven months that Utah inmates have been there, six inmates - three locked up for killing someone - have escaped. The reason, McCotter said, is because the buildings are medium- to minimum-security.
The Carter Gobal study called Youth Corrections a "national model." But testimony Wednesday indicated that model system is at a breaking point.
Attention to juvenile crime in recent years has helped the division catch up on the number of lock-up beds it has, but programs that intercede in teenage lives in other ways are starving.
Division Director Gary Dalton said private providers, who run everything from group homes to community-based programs like work camps, haven't had even a cost-of-living increase since 1989.
Dalton figured it would cost $1.5 million just to maintain the current services teens are getting. The governor cut that to $1.3 million, and the fiscal analyst said there's no money at all for those programs.
Glen Lambert, who runs Odyssey House, a substance abuse program, said about 18 private companies provide for 95 percent of the teens in programs not run by the state.
In a recent survey, 10 of those companies responded to financial questions. Seven said they were operating in debt at the end of last year. Three said they're considering not taking teens in state custody or going out of business, he said.
"You can't ignore one part of the system for that long," Lambert said. "These kids will have to be either placed on the streets or in youth prisons. . . . This is very serious."
The committee responsible for deciding what gets funded - the Joint Appropriations Committee for Executive Offices, Courts, Corrections and the Legislature - voted on both budgets this week.
Several committee members were so determined to fund community alternatives and receiving centers that they made a motion to rob other state government budgets. The motion passed with only three nay votes.
The committee took 1.5 percent from the budgets of the Legislature, elected officials, public safety and state courts. They left alone adult and youth corrections and the Highway Patrol portion of the public safety budget.
What they couldn't fund in Adult Corrections, they put on a wish list. They can go back to the Executive Appropriations Committee and ask them to fund certain things on the list, or if they get extra money near the end of the session, they can fund additional programs.
That wish list already adds up to nearly $8 million.
It includes items like pay raises for correctional officers, more probation and parole agents, and sex offender treatment money.
Those legislators who voted against the motion to take money from some budgets to fund Youth Corrections receiving centers and community alternatives said the measure was too drastic too early.
"I'm willing to roll the dice and see what executive appropriations is going to do . . . I think they've got a card up their sleeve we don't know about," said Rep. Steve Barth, D-Salt Lake, who voted against taking the money from other budgets.
All votes are preliminary because the committee doesn't know if it will get extra money until the state budget is decided, and that won't be until the final few days of the legislative session.