“We’re having more people being released to parole supervision, and people on parole typically are higher risk than people that are supervised on probation in the community, so we’re seeing an increase in the number of higher-risk people going back into the community,” he said.

Bartruff said prison officials work to maintain minimum staffing levels by filling vacancies with counselors and treatment experts to make the best use of available resources. He noted his department received an extra $4.1 million for the current fiscal year and hoped a similar supplement would be approved by the governor and Legislature if extra funds are identified in the budget process next session.

“In Corrections, it’s not always good news,” Bartruff told the governor during his budget presentation. “We’ve had attacks on staff, we’ve had attacks on other incarcerated persons, we’ve had contraband in our facilities, we’ve had people on parole that absconded or committed other crimes, and a rising prison population.”

He said the nature of corrections is dealing with those kinds of situations, adding “we’re starting to see some good trends. I can never say that we’re not going to have any assaults or incidents like this but as long as I can see the needle moving closer to zero I think we’re doing our job.”