Paying for short-term offenders

Parties on both sides of an issue hope a long-term solution can be found in a short time.

At issue is the housing of short-term offenders — felons with six months or less to serve on their sentence or probation violators who are incarcerated for less than six months.

Enacted during the 2003 budget shortfall, current law requires these individuals be housed in county jails, rather than a Department of Corrections facility.

Dakota County Commissioner Nancy Schouweiler called it a way for the state to solve its budget problems by using “the counties’ checkbooks.”

At the time, it was suggested the plan would save state dollars and that the inmates would be better served in a local facility. It also included a $1.2 million appropriation to help counties cover the additional costs.

But from the start, state reimbursement fell far short of covering actual costs.

For example, it cost Hennepin County an additional $805,966 to house the short-term offenders in Fiscal Year 2004 and $1.5 million three years later. The state increased its daily reimbursement to $27.24 per inmate in Fiscal Year 2008, but the county still faced an additional $933,063 in taxpayer costs. The state’s daily reimbursement rate decreased to $8-$10 in Fiscal Year 2009.

Tom Merkel, director of community corrections and rehabilitation for Hennepin County, told the House Public Safety Finance Division Jan. 15 that the program needs to “either be dramatically changed or discontinued.”

Rep. Michael Paymar (DFL-St. Paul), the division chairman, called the funding “unfair,” saying the problem needs to be solved this year. “We’ve been kicking this around for years.”

According to nonpartisan House Fiscal Analysis, “If the Legislature completely funded the local impact at an average per diem rate of $55 using the current average of 360 beds, the estimated cost to the state would be $7.227 million per year or $5.62 million per year in new money.”

In addition to cost concerns, Merkel said short-term offenders housed in the Hennepin County facility have had a 74 percent recidivism rate after three years, 60 percent of which were felonies. He said that is in part because the Corrections Department provides effective reentry services.