Oregon missed out on about $2 million in federal support for the state prison system because of a missed deadline, the Department of Corrections says.

In each of the last nine fiscal years Oregon received money from the federal government to help pay for the keep of illegal aliens in prison.

The amounts ranged from a low of about $1 million in 1995 to more than $5.5 million in 1998. Last year the state got $2.3 million under the federal program, known as the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.

The Albany Democrat-Herald became aware of the program in February after the paper published an editorial suggesting the federal government ought to pay the costs of any illegal aliens in Oregon prisons.

This prompted a prolonged exchange of questions from the paper and answers from the Corrections Department about details of the federal assistance program.

As part of that exchange, the department forwarded a worksheet showing the history of the program in Oregon, including the state's share of the congressional appropriation for the program nationwide.

On Thursday the department's budget director, Nathan Allen, explained the worksheet's information in an e-mail and added: "We do not expect any funding from the FY04 award, and the president has not included any SCAAP funding in his FY05 budget request."

The Democrat-Herald asked the department why Oregon expected no funding this year.

Perrin Damon, a spokeswoman for the department in Salem, provided the answer Thursday: Allen, she said, had missed the deadline for requesting the money for this year.

"He is mortified," she added. "But that's what happened."

The deadline to register for the money was March 8.

When Allen realized on the morning of the 9th that he had missed it despite various "stickies" he had placed on his computer, Damon said, he tried desperately to get an extension, but the federal Bureau of Justice Programs said no.

Having missed the registration deadline, the state then was not allowed to apply for the money by the actual application deadline, which was March 15.

Allen, 54, has been budget manager since December 1996 and this biennium oversees an all-funds prison budget of $964.5 million.

Asked for an explanation, he said he didn't want to make excuses. But there have been workload issues in his office, partly because of new members on his staff and additional reporting requirements that take more time.

When a reporter remarked that this might not have been the worst thing that ever happened, Allen said, "I'd put it right up there ... Our business is about information, and accuracy, and about not making mistakes."

The amount of this year's federal award would have been about $2 million, Damon said.

In fiscal year 2003, Oregon received $2,333,122 to help cover the cost of 1,506 illegal aliens.

In his e-mail memo, Allen explained that 1,506 was the total number of illegal aliens who had been in the Oregon prison system for more than four days during the previous fiscal year.

The number of illegal aliens in the prison system at any one time apparently is lower. In February, when the newspaper first raised the question, the prison system said 716 of its 12,300 inmates had "detainers" from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, indicating they were illegal aliens.

The Corrections Department says running the prison system costs about $64 per prisoner per day.