BOISE -- Idaho's prisons director fears more budget cuts will jeopardize safety in prisons.
Department of Correction chief Brent Reinke told the Legislature's budget committee Friday the state's prisons are already severely understaffed.
He says the department will maintain furloughs and cuts already in place, but that doing even more would put the prisons at risk.
He told the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, "We are on the edge."
So far this year, employees at the agency have taken about 80,000 unpaid furlough hours, helping to reduce layoffs by an equivalent of 49 jobs. But the agency has cut 44 positions so far in fiscal year 2010.
About 21,000 offenders are currently serving time in the department's facilities or being overseen by probation and parole officers, a system Reinke says is already among the most cost-effective in the nation.
