Good afternoon, Chairman Cropp, and esteemed Committee-members. I am Devon Brown, Director of the DC Department of Corrections. I appreciate this opportunity to present remarks on the “February Revised Revenue Allocation Act on 2006.”
The DC Department of Corrections (DOC) in its ongoing efforts to reduce the population at the Central Detention Facility (DC Jail), pursuant to the mandate of the District of Columbia Jail Improvement Act of 2003, Bill 15-31, requested funding in the amount of $2.4 million dollars to purchase additional contract bed space to comply with the legislation.
The DOC houses a total population of approximately 3600 inmates on any given day in its custody. The population is comprised of adult males and females and juveniles who are either awaiting adjudication or in service of a sentence. Of the population described approximately 450 are misdemeanants (15 percent). However, many of them have legal restrictions that would preclude their placement in the community prior to expiration of their sentence.
The DOC’s total bed space capacity is 3,825, which includes the utilization of contract halfway houses and secure contract beds at the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF). The capacity for the Central Detention Facility is 2,498, capacity for four contractual halfway houses is 121 and the capacity for the Correctional Treatment Facility (contract) is 1180. Based on the agency’s critical need to reduce its population at the Central Detention Facility pursuant to the legislation and to ensure the safety of the community, staff and inmates, priority has been given to reinstitute placement of sentenced misdemeanants in halfway houses to the extent possible and transferring inmates to the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), which is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
Placement of short term sentenced misdemeanants in halfway houses prior to their scheduled release is consistent with current correctional population management trends and an integral component of DOC’s detention programs. In an effort to further enhance the citizens of the District of Columbia’s public safety, DOC will also reinstitute the use of electronic monitoring devices, including Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems to track misdemeanant placements in halfway houses who have limited community resources (homeless, unemployment histories, lack of stable family ties, etc.) to ensure the maximum level of supervision until they are released from custody. This measure ensures that secure beds (located in the jail) are reserved for high risk offenders committed to the DOC and low risk offenders are more appropriately housed in minimum security facilities (halfway houses). DOC, in conjunction with a private vendor, will develop a risk assessment instrument to enhance our efforts when considering the best participants for community release.
Placement of misdemeanants in a halfway housed also provides an excellent opportunity for their transitional re-entry into the community under supervision which further enhances their opportunities of being released from incarceration with both gainful employment and the skills necessary to maintain a constructive lifestyle. Funding of additional halfway house beds also enables the agency to fully support the District’s re-entry initiatives and its goal of strengthening families.
The determination of the actual use of the requested funding ($2.4 million dollars) must rest within the agency based on the changing trends in its population. To direct the use of the requested funding solely for halfway house placements would hamper the agency’s ability to best achieve its goal of reducing the Jail’s population. In this regard, if the number of eligible sentenced misdemeanants decreases at any point during the fiscal year, the agency must reserve the right to pursue other population management options. Our population trends and demographics constantly changes, resulting in the agency having to routinely shift population management strategies.
The agency’s other available option is utilization of contractual beds at the CTF (CCA). This option is more expensive than the use of half way house beds. However, the CTF can house with the exception of maximum classified inmates, all persons committed to the DOC. Therefore, when the funding ($2.4 million dollars) remains undesignated and the population demographics change we can expeditiously shift population management strategies and achieve our ultimate goal of reducing the Jail’s population.
Based on our current population trends during the first quarter of FY 06 the agency plans to initially target sufficient funding to support fifty (50) additional halfway house beds and the remainder of the $2.4 million to support 70 additional contract beds at the CTF/CCA, inasmuch as it is projected that this is the maximum number that will satisfy our criteria for placement.
Our rationale for selecting this misdemeanant population for this initiative is because it is the only inmate population that DOC has authority to place in a community setting.