Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives

The Enacted Budget passed by the Legislature on May 1, 2003 makes no changes to the State Operations portion of the Executive Budget.  The Legislature did reject the Executive budget proposal to consolidate eight local assistance programs into one new “Community Corrections Block Grant” and added $586,000 for local alternatives to incarceration programs.

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of February 7, 2003):

·          An FTE level of 32, which represents a decrease of 1 FTE from the Governor’s revised estimated 3/31/03 level.  The revised estimate is an increase of 2 FTEs from last year’s Executive Budget estimate for 3/31/03

·          Redirecting staff efforts from grants management to performance measurement by consolidating funding for Probation Aid, the Intensive Supervision Program, the Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program, and a number of alternatives to incarceration programs into a block grant.

·          Overall agency funding is decreased by $187,000 (8 percent).  This is made up of a decrease of $117,000 (8 percent) in personal services and a decrease of $70,000 (14.7 percent) in nonpersonal services.  Given that there is an actual increase of 1 FTE, these cuts seem unusual.  This issue should be clarified with agency management.

·          A General Fund Aid To Localities appropriation of $71,979,000, a decrease of $15,556,000 from SFY 2002-2003.  This decrease is the result of the Governor’s proposal to merge Probation Aid and Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) funding streams into a new “Community Corrections Block Grant” that would be allocated directly to localities in lump sums.  This new block grant proposal reduces State support to local probation departments and ATI programs by 15 percent.