PROVIDENCE — With state government staring at the potential for multimillion-dollar deficits this year and next, prison administrators are contemplating widespread layoffs and the release of hundreds of inmates.

The state police — with “extreme difficulty” — have proposed the layoff of 54 troopers in the patrol division with the warning that cutting the patrol ranks this dramatically “will severely restrict barracks operations and decrease services to many areas of the state.”

Administrators at the Department of Human Services clearly struggled to keep intact the state-subsidized programs that help pay the medical bills of 186,000 people – nearly one out of every five Rhode Islanders.

But to do this, they suggested a 10-percent reduction in Medicaid payments to hospitals for outpatient services; a curb on ever-growing state reimbursements to nursing homes; and the elimination of health-insurance subsidies for 750 employees at 50 childcare centers.

Instead of cutting, the folks at the state’s Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals suggested raising the current 10-cent-a-gallon excise tax on beer, wine and spirits by 16 cents to help pay for “community-based treatment and prevention services.”

They also proposed selling 30 acres of Camp Pastore, a 50-acre camp owned by the state in Charlestown that was once a summer camp for the Ladd Center, the state’s now defunct home for adults with developmental disabilities.

The proposals have been quietly streaming into the state Budget Office since early September, as part of the months-long vetting process that takes place before the governor submits his tax-and-spending proposals to the General Assembly each year.

Top state government administrators were asked to cut up to 15 percent from what it would otherwise cost to continue their current operations during the new budget year that begins July 1, 2007 — the focus of lawmakers’ attention when they return next month.

An internal budget office analysis last July estimated the potential gap between revenues and “current-services” spending during the new budget year at $207.8 million, with revenues growing at a projected 3.4 percent, and state spending by $293.2 million — or 9.1 percent. No can do.

But several of the most dramatic cost-cutting ideas have been proposed before — and rejected — by the governor or lawmakers.

Governor Carcieri’s spokesman, Jeff Neal, stressed this week that the “department budget requests are only the first step in the budget process…Many of the options presented will never make it into the governor’s budget plan.”

That said, the state’s revenue picture has darkened significantly since this annual exercise began in July. Top advisers to the House, Senate and governor now predict a $105.1-million shortfall this year.

They have also dropped their revenue expectations for next year which, in turn, raises the specter of an even larger revenue-spending gap — $254 million — if nothing is done to rein in spending.

The governor has a Jan. 18 deadline to get his deficit-avoidance plan for this year — and his budget proposals for next year — into the General Assembly. A glance at some of the proposals:

STATE POLICE: “I don’t think we are at a time in which law-enforcement would be laid off,” said state police Supt. Steven M. Pare, who nonetheless felt compelled to propose layoffs that would cut his department’s roster by close to 25 percent.

With state police required to retire after 25 years, and 36 such mandatory retirements anticipated between now and 2012, Pare says, his department should instead be recruiting and hiring to make sure there are “seasoned” troopers to fill in the ranks. But his “budget target” required him to reduce state police spending, which stands at $53.1 million this year, down to $50.6 million.

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: Director A.T. Wall proposed closing the high-security center known as SuperMax, opened in 1981, and closing and selling the 1932-era Donald Price medium-security facility.

And to make way for all of the high-risk and otherwise ineligible-for-release prisoners who would be displaced, his budget-reduction plan suggests: “Release all minimum-security inmates to the community.”

By way of reference, Station nightclub owner Michael Derderian and rock band tour manager Daniel M. Biechele were placed in minimum after admitting their roles in the Feb. 20, 2003, fire that killed 100 people. Former Gov. Edward D. DiPrete also served his time in minimum.

In all, the proposal would result in 196 employee layoffs; the early-release — or alternative sentencing — of 401 convicts who otherwise would be in jail.

With the prison population at its highest level a few weeks back — with 3,821 inmates — Wall is not recommending a cutback of this “Draconian” magnitude.

His proposal would require legislative changes in sentencing “such that people who would otherwise be sent to prison are instead supervised through home confinement, probation or other means.”

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES: Re-jiggering of the weekly rates paid 1,300 or so childcare providers who provide before-and-after school supervision to 4,809 children is one of many cost-saving proposals by the $1.6-billion department that oversees most of the state’s direct-aid programs for the old, the poor and the sick.

Currently the state pays the maximum — $135 weekly per child — as long as the child is enrolled in a program. The provider gets the same amount of money whether the child comes 25 hours a week, or 45 during break-weeks when school is not in session.

And a provider could get the full weekly rate for two afternoons of afterschool care for a child, and another, for the other three afternoons. The proposal: pay a tiered rate of $33 for 10 hours a week, $67 for up to 20 hours, $101 for up to 30 hours and the $135 for 30 hours or more of care. Estimated savings: $3.8 million.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: “It has become exceedingly difficult to balance fiscal constraints with sound public and environmental policy,” wrote DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan in his budget filing.

While the DEM has, in the past, raised beach-admission and hunting and fishing license fees, sold abandoned property and shifted “eligible costs” to the federal government, Sullivan said he had no choice now but to recommend the elimination of 58 jobs.

Possible consequences: closure of state parks, imperiled dam safety, delayed response time to complaints of odors and exterior lead paint. Also, “the Bay Island Parks System would remain a concept.”

MENTAL HEALTH, RETARDATION AND HOSPITALS: In the case of new MHRH Director Ellen R. Nelson, many of the proposed cost cuts fit in with her vision for the department.

She wants to close admissions to 48 state-run homes for adults with developmental disabilities in the so-called RICLAS program – Rhode Island Community Living and Supports. While another 2,700 live in privately run homes under contract with MHRH, roughly 286 adults live in the state-run homes that are a remnant of the Ladd Center. She also wants to move some people from group homes into less-expensive “shared living arrangements,” a program known informally as adult foster care that provides homes to about 100 now.

Nelson also wants to ban overtime — immediately — unless authorized by one of three people, including herself, and necessary for direct patient care.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT: Licensing would end for athletic trainers, hearing-aid dealers, tanning salons and water bottling companies, among others. But some department directors are less worried than others.

Only two New England states — Rhode Island and Maine — regulate tanning facilities, the budget request said. “With increasing budget constraints, the department has decided that this program is not a high priority for funding,” it said.

Another suggested cut: eliminate the licensure and inspection of public pools and spas. Right now, there are 418 public pools and spas in Rhode Island subject to regulation and 16 percent of inspections find “poor water quality.”

“While there is a potential for disease outbreak secondary to poor water quality, there have been very few reports in the past several years,” the budget request said.

Another: Eliminate funding for smoking-prevention programs in middle and junior high schools.

DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES: While other departments contemplate layoffs, the DCYF wants to add 68.5 jobs at the Rhode Island Training School as it moves to its new home in the Pastore Center government complex in Cranston.

The additional positions would increase the training school’s staff, currently 180 people, by more than a third.

DCYF Director Patricia Martinez said the new jobs would cut overtime and bring classroom ratios in line with federal mandates. “It’s not a wish list,” Martinez said. “It’s something that we have to have.”

With 221 children and young adults in custody now, the new facility — capacity 228 — doesn’t leave much room for growth. So to save money and avoid overcrowding, Martinez is proposing to lower the upper age boundary at the training school from 21 to 18. The change would not affect young adults already there. Along with this, the DCYF would end all services to those over age 18. But this “could result in more homeless youth, increased psychiatric hospitalization and increased youth crime and detention.” On the revenue side, the DCYF wants local school districts to pay the cost of schooling youths from their communities at the training school. “While this may be viewed simply as cost shifting, it is intended to increase community responsibility for their youth.”