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$67 million appropriation discussed for public safety and disaster contingency

State prisons need money to fund safety and security improvements, and money to fund overtime and hire new correctional officers and staff.

The state’s courts need money to make its computer systems more secure. And the state’s Disaster Assistance Contingency account needs replenishing.

All of these budget and policy items, plus many more, are in HF4540, which would appropriate $67.1 million from the General Fund to the Department of Public Safety in the 2020-21 biennium.

The House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division held an informational remote hearing on the bill Thursday but took no action. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul), the division chair. There is no Senate companion.

Nearly half of the request — $30 million in the current fiscal year — would fund the Disaster Assistance Contingency Account. Funds in the account can be used to respond to natural disasters and other emergency situations.

The account was created in 2014, when state law was also changed to allow the governor to declare a state of emergency and spend money for disaster relief without calling a special session.

The Department of Corrections would get $23.1 million in fiscal year 2021. Of that, $9.9 million would be for additional compensation costs, including overtime, for correctional officers and other prison staff, and $5.1 million would be to improve safety in state correctional facilities through investing in new technologies, including purchasing and maintaining body cameras for use by security staff.

The state’s correctional system was the focus of a February report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor that found that persistent staffing shortages and heavy overtime use, among other issues, had significantly reduced safety for both prisoners and staff at the 11 state correctional facilities.

The state Supreme Court would get $4.5 million in fiscal year 2021, of which $3.5 million would be spent on cybersecurity improvements to the state’s court computer networks.

Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington outlined how the Office of Justice Programs in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would use $2 million:

  • $1.5 million would fund community-based violence prevention grants;
  • $400,000 would fund an integrated gun violence response framework grant; and
  • $100,000 would fund a violence prevention coordinator position at the Department of Public Safety.

The BCA would also receive $1.4 million to expand the capacity of its crime lab to process forensic samples related to violent crime.

Several policy provisions come from HF2983, a bill on sexual assault test kits, sponsored by Rep. Marion O'Neill (R-Maple Lake) and heard by the public safety division on Feb. 18.

Language taken from O’Neill’s bill would require the BCA to:

  • test and store rape kits;
  • create a searchable database with information on the status of a victim’s individual rape kit;
  • hire additional scientists and toxicologists; and
  • develop a uniform sexual assault examination kit consent form for victims of sexual violence.

The BCA would receive $3.1 million to perform those tasks.

 


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