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California Budget Bulletin:
Governor's May Budget Revision Adds 20 Percent To The Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act
May 15, 2006
By David Steinhart, Director
Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program
On Friday May 12th. California Governor Arnold Schwarznegger released his "May Revision" of the proposed FY 06-07 California state budget. This revision was unveiled with smiles all around in the Governor's office, prompted by a surge in tax collections that exceeded revenue forecasts by more than $7 billion.
This abundant new revenue allowed the Governor to placate many critics with his revised budget. The revision adds nearly $3 billion for schools, while funding a wide range of sidetracked projects and programs from transportation to levee repair to children's health.
A prospective beneficiary of the revenue surprise was the Schiff-Cardenas (Juvenile Justice) Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA). The JJCPA funds a range of youth crime and violence prevention programs in all California counties. JJCPA annual appropriations have declined from $121 million per year (in 2000) to $100 million statewide last year. This decline also affected the COPS program which pays for local law enforcement positions. COPS is linked to JJCPA by a legislative formula which requires both to be funded annually at the same level. Both programs have consistently earned strong endorsements from law enforcement, probation, court and community-service agencies around the state.
In legislative Budget hearings, lawmakers expressed some interest in restoring COPS/ JJCPA funding to their original levels of $121 million each. The Governor, hearing the same message, added $42 million to his public safety package in the May Revision, bringing the total combined COPS/JJCPA proposed funding level to $242 million. Budget committees will now review the Governor's request to augment funds for these programs in FY 06-07.
Probation subsidy funds—still on track at $203 million statewide.
The Governor's January Budget proposed $203 million statewide to support county juvenile probation camps and related probation services for juvenile offenders. Last year's budget changed the source of these funds from federal TANF dollars to state General Fund dollars. The May Revision did not change the proposed $203 million for probation services. Fundable programs and spending provisions are described in the "Comprehensive Youth Services Act" (at Welfare and Institutions Code Section 18220), the old TANF-based statute that was re-entitled "Juvenile Probation Funding" last year.
After school funding steady at $550 million
The May Revision proposes no change in the Governor's January proposal to fund After School Education and Safety Act (Proposition 49) programs at a new high of $550 statewide million for FY 06-07. Last year these programs were funded at $122 million statewide. This year, Proposition 49's full-spending "trigger" was pulled by a combination of budget events, and an additional $428 million will be pumped into the after-school initiative. In January, the Legislative Analyst (Elizabeth Hill) advised lawmakers to amend Proposition 49 to "un-pull" the trigger and scale back before- and-after-school program expenditures to meet other pressing education needs. The Governor (who sponsored Proposition 49 before his election) rejected this advice and has repeatedly endorsed full trigger funding for his after-school initiative.
Division of Juvenile Justice budget grows bigger by minute for the costs of compliance with Farrell remedial plans
The Governor's January Budget proposed a total of $ 457 million for the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). This amount included a new $55 million to comply with remedial plans in the Farrell litigation. Those plans require DJJ to improve conditions of confinement and to upgrade its programs for juvenile offenders serving time in state youth correctional facilities. The cost of Farrell compliance is growing. In April, DJJ asked legislative budget committees for another $23 million in Farrell funds for FY 06-07. Combined with Farrell costs approved for FY 06-07 in last year's Budget Act, the total appropriation for Farrell compliance sought by DJJ for FY 06-07 has risen to $107 million. This $107 million would support 963 new positions, including teachers, medical and mental health professionals and more youth corrections officers to meet a long list of remedial plan objectives. Most of the new money would be spent on the Ward Safety and Welfare Plan— to implement a ward classification system (to reduce institutional violence), higher staffing ratios, smaller unit sizes and other program changes.
Farrell compliance planning has become a small industry in Sacramento, as the state has hired wave after wave of experts and consultants to produce and revise court-mandated remedial plans. Some advocates of DJJ reform have questioned the growing price tag and the need for nearly 1,000 new state employees to implement Farrell. They note that the FY 06-07 DJJ budget does not include any funds for the development of local programs or facilities as alternatives to DJJ, to fill huge local service gaps and to reduce county reliance on costly DJJ commitments. Current DJJ average annual cost per ward exceeds $115,000 per year—a per-case cost that can only go up if remedial plans are funded at currently proposed levels. Critics have also observed that DJJ has offered no proposal to reduce its institutional population and associated state costs—for example, by cutting back on time-adds averaging nearly 4 months per ward per year, or by stemming the flow of parole violators back into the institutions for technical violations (of 1700 admissions to DJJ in 2005, 900 were for parole violations). As the June 15th deadline approaches for legislative approval of the Budget Act, budget sub-committees will continue to scrutinize DJJ's budget requests and to explore cost-reduction measures that are consistent with Farrell and other reform objectives.
To put this in perspective, the debate over DJJ's budget is the proverbial "tempest in a teapot" compared to cost concerns about the state's adult prison system. California's youth inmate population is about 3,000 wards and dropping, while the adult prison population is at 175,000 inmates and rising. Staggering new costs are being added on the adult corrections side for health care reforms under the Plata receivership. The total state cost of running the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation next year will rise to $8.5 billion (based on the May Revision), of which less than $500 million is earmarked for juvenile offender operations. Administrators and lawmakers face the daunting task of controlling runaway costs on the adult side while also transforming the state's troubled youth correctional system into a best-practice model of care. This challenge has driven some key players to the sidelines. Two CDCR Secretaries—the top corrections officers in the state—have quit the post in the last six months. This coming July, the Undersecretary job will vacate and may be filled, as it was temporarily before, by the present DJJ chief Bernard Warner. That would leave the DJJ top job unfilled. Three other top posts on the DJJ organization chart (heads of facilities, programs and parole) remain unfilled with permanent appointees. It is difficult to predict, at this point, who may be running the Division of Juvenile Justice by the end of this year.