Corrections Director says budget choices have to be made

The Director of the Iowa’s prison system will present his budget recommendations to the Governor Thursday.Department of Corrections Director Kip Kautzky says he’s handcuffed by the problem of an increasing prison population and declining budget dollars. Kautzky says a record 491 new prisoners checked into Iowa’s penal system in July – and projections don’t show any letup in new prisoners anytime soon. He says it isn’t rocket science that there has to be a change in the number of prisoners coming in, or a speed up in the number of prisoners going out of the system. Kautzky says it’s hard to cut personel when the number of prisoners continues to increase.The department’s already cut some 160 positions this year, so Kautzky says they have to look to at other options for keeping the budget balanced.