MADISON, Wis. -- The state is considering closing a prison to deal with budget cuts, which could mean layoffs for as many as 400 Department of Corrections workers.

Corrections Deputy Secretary Rick Raemisch won't say which of the 21 prisons could get the ax, but the department is considering closing one, which could save $16 million a year.

Raemisch told WISC-TV it's necessary to consider closing a prison to deal with a two-year, $32 million cut added by Republicans in the state Senate during the all-night budget debate.

Republicans opted for a $2.3 percent across-the-board cut for all agencies. In real dollar amounts, corrections is the second biggest behind the UW System, which adds up to roughly $16 million a year.

Lawmakers defended the cut, saying any prison closing talk is just administrators "crying wolf."

One lawmaker suggested the department is top-heavy and needs to cut administrators.

"When you don't have a good plan, when you don't have a rational plan, you do an across-the-board cut," Raemisch said. "We're just going to cut everybody and let them fumble around and try to come up with the money. When that's said to us, you're talking public safety."

Raemisch said the department has already cut more than 200 administrators from the central office alone.

Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, who represents the 69th Assembly District, calls some programs in corrections ridiculous, such as free stamps for prisoners, which costs $14,000 over two years. Suder wants to cut the 15 cents an hour inmates get to attend classes and Alcohol and Other Addiction programs, and the 5 cents an hour given to inmates who don't have jobs in prison.

"They can absolutely deal with these cuts rather easily without affecting any type of public safety as long as they go after some of the ridiculous programs they have and getting rid of the current administrators they have and don't need," Suder said.

Raemisch said that in some cases, these programs are what keep offenders from coming back after they get out.

Officials would not say which prison is most vulnerable to closing, but said they're evaluating them all.