The Senate Appropriations Committee heard HB 1006, sponsored by Sen. Steele and Sen. Young, on criminal justice funding. This bill was amended to provide:
- the DOC to compile certain information and submit a quarterly report to the state budget committee and a monthly report to the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council;
- provides that counties or courts wishing to apply to the DOC for financial aid shall apply through the Community Corrections Advisory Board and specifies the purposes for which the DOC may award financial aid;
- permits a residential work release facility to be physically connected to a jail if total separation between the facilities is maintained;
- repeals the county corrections fund that provides funding to each county for operation of the county’s jail, jail programs, or other local correctional facilities or community based programs;
- removes the provision in the bill that would require the Indiana Judicial Center to award grants to assist with community corrections programs in each county;
- provides that the Executive Director of the Indiana Judicial Center is to serve as the chairperson of the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council;
- establishes the mental health and addiction forensic treatment services account within the statutes governing the Division of Mental Health and Addiction rather than the statutes governing corrections (under current law);
- provides that the Division of Mental Health and Addiction may use money in the account to fund grants and vouchers for mental health and addiction forensic treatment services;
- requires a probation officer to consult with community corrections in preparing a presentence report;
- permits a court to delegate the terms of placement in community corrections to the community corrections program director, and permits the director to change the terms of placement or reassign a person in community corrections;
- permits the sheriff to receive a community corrections grant as a per diem or as reimbursement for the medical expenses of an incarcerated person;
- establishes the duties of the advisory council.
Representatives of several agency service providers, Universal Health, and the Probation Officers Professional Association of Indiana testified in support of the bill. The amended bill passed 11-0.
Read the bill at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/house/1006.