PROVIDENCE — Critics yesterday questioned the Carcieri administration’s plans to divert inmates from the state’s adult and juvenile prison facilities as a way of saving money and preventing overcrowding.

One proposal calls for increasing the time adult inmates can earn toward early release at the Adult Correctional Institutions. The other would cap the number of children locked up at the state Training School at 148 boys and 12 girls, redirecting others to community-based rehabilitation programs.

Both plans were submitted as part of the governor’s midyear budget-cutting bill.

Opponents, many of them union leaders, told the House Finance Committee that while the plans may cut costs, they could also threaten public safety by “freeing convicts” onto the streets.

“I guess we could save money but the question is, what is the cost to Rhode Islanders?” asked Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers.

The Corrections Department’s “good time” plan would give well-behaved prisoners serving sentences of six months or more — with the exception of sexual offenders — the chance to slice up to 10 days per month off their stay. Those who participate in rehabilitation programs will be eligible for more days off.

Corrections Director A.T. Wall has said the early-release package, if enacted by the General Assembly, would reduce the daily prison population by 47 before July 1 and by about 211 next year, reducing the chance that the prisons will hit a state-imposed inmate cap.

While there are some associated startup costs, officials estimate the policy would save more than $1 million next year and a potential $22 million over 10 years. The plan would also bring Rhode Island’s early-release guidelines in step with other states.

Since rolling out the proposal last month, Wall has emphasized that it would not lead to a mass prison release. The idea is to shave off days at the end of a sentence, he says. Inmates with short stays could be released a few days early. Those with longer sentences could get out months ahead of schedule once they earn the time.

Speaking on behalf of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association, Central Falls Chief and former state Rep. Joseph P. Moran III said the plan would filter many former inmates back into urban areas, posing potential problems for “overtaxed police departments,” including his own.

Steven Brown, director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that while he was glad to see the state addressing overcrowding, he worries that excluding sexual offenders from the new “good time” policies will set a bad precedent.

Brown also frowned on the language that awards “up to 10 days per month,” saying it creates “a totally arbitrary decision-making process” by corrections officials.

Wall, in turn, agreed to delete that part of the legislation, thereby ensuring that the awarding of good time is consistent.

The committee did not vote on the proposal, instead moving on to the state’s youngest inmates: its Training School population. Carcieri’s midyear budget calls for legally limiting the number of children locked up to prevent overcrowding when the new $61-million Training School facility opens at capacity this spring.

Most days, the population has hovered around 175 including boys and girls. If enacted, the cap would top off the daily population at 160. The remainder would be diverted to community programs, either in lieu of the Training School, or as a reintegration step once they’ve completed more than half their sentence, said Department of Children, Youth and Families Director Patricia Martinez.

Despite limited details in the DCYF’s “interim plan” for how to implement more community programs, several House Finance members, including Chairman Steven M. Costantino, seemed open to the idea, not just as a money saver, but as a means of improving the system. “It’s about time we start thinking not of government entities … but whether this system is helping the child,” he said.

Advocates who spoke in favor of the cap testified that the best way to help rehabilitate less serious juvenile offenders is to take them out the criminal justice system and place them in more supportive programs run by local schools and nonprofits that can help get them back on track.

The unions countered those claims with stories of juveniles who were released from the Training School only to commit heinous crimes. “There’s more than just children at stake, it’s the communities at stake,” Ferruccio said.

James Cenerini, lobbyist for Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, noted that several alternative programs cost more to house children than the Training School.

But the real problem with the cap may be getting the police who arrest youngsters and the judges who sentence them to enforce it, Rep. Thomas Slater noted.

The DCYF says it plans to work with Family Court judges and local police departments to decide how to direct nonviolent children.

The House Finance Committee did not vote on the cap plan yesterday. Once vote are taken, both plans will move on to the House Floor with the rest of the midyear budget-cutting bill.

cneedham@projo.com