CHEYENNE - With a new prison in Torrington coming on line and with no changes in sentencing laws, Wyoming won't need another prison until 2012 or possibly 2015, the director of the Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

Robert Lampert said the Legislature in the recent session helped to reduce the prison population growth by adopting laws dealing with medical furloughs for seriously ill inmates, allowing jail sanctions or sentences instead of revoking probation, and giving good-time credit to parolees.

"We're trying to come up with alternatives to revocation of probation and parole," Lampert said. "But if we end up with additional mandatory minimum sentences, that will change."

The department's population projections, he said, are accurate within 3 percent.

Lampert made the comments at a meeting of the State Building Commission, which includes the five elected state officials.

Sen. John Hines, R-Gillette, a legislative liaison to the commission, said he received a mailing that said Wyoming is among the top five to 10 states in the rate of incarceration of residents.

Yet, he said, the general public believes that people who commit crimes should be jailed.

Lampert said the department has joined with the Legislature to study what other states are doing to control prison population growth.

He said the department can add 400 prison beds by expanding existing penal facilities, which could postpone the need for another prison for five or six years beyond 2015.

Lampert noted that during the 20 years he worked in the Texas corrections system, the prison population grew from 24,000 to 140,000.

"I know what not to do," he said.