This bill would authorize the courts to sentence to the Youthful Offender System, a juvenile convicted of a class 2 felony who, if sentenced as an adult, would be eligible for parole prior to the juvenile’s 25th birthday. The bill also allows the court to sentence a juvenile to up to seven years in the Youthful Offender System.

This bill would take effect September 1, 1998 unless a referendum petition is filed during the ninety-day period after adjournment sine die of the General Assembly, or on the date of the official declaration of the vote of the people as proclaimed by the Governor, if a referendum petition is filed pursuant to Article V, Section 1 (3) of the State Constitution. The bill would apply to sentences entered on or after September 1, 1998.

STATE FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY	FY 1998/99	FY 1999/2000
State Revenues General Fund Other Fund
State Expenditures General Fund Other Fund	$0	$18,636
FTE Position Change	None	None
Local Government Impact — See Local Government Impact Section.

The bill would have a fiscal impact to state General Fund expenditures. Data from the Department of Corrections (DOC) admissions database indicates that in FY 1997 there were 10 juveniles admitted to the DOC for a class 2 felony. Three of these juveniles would be eligible for parole prior to their 25th birthday and would be eligible under the provisions of the bill to be

sentenced to the Youthful Offender System (YOS). Since most of these juveniles committed serious violent offenses and the judge has the option of sentencing to an adult prison or YOS, this fiscal note assumes that one juvenile will be sentenced to the YOS each year. The average sentence length for these juveniles admitted to the DOC was 192 months with an average length of stay of 109.6 months. Based on these averages, it is assumed that the one new admission to the YOS each year would receive the maximum seven year sentence, five years would be served in a secured facility (Phase I), 90 days in a secured community facility (Phase II), and 2 years under community supervision (Phase III). This fiscal note takes each phase into account and estimates that each juvenile admitted to the YOS under this bill would be one less juvenile admitted to the DOC each year. On July 1, 1998, the new YOS facility for Phase I is scheduled to come on-line and it is estimated that operating costs will be $35,791 per juvenile offender per year. Phase II is a 90 day transition phase and averages $122 per day per offender (or $10,980 for 90 days). Phase III is $61 per day for emancipated offenders (or 75 percent of offenders) and $40 for offenders placed back in the home (or 25 percent of offenders). This fiscal note assumes the number of offenders affected by the provisions of the bill would receive the full five years in the secure facility ($35,791), 90 days in Phase II ($10,980), and the maximum 12 months as an emancipated offender in Phase III community supervision ($22,265).

Pursuant to Section 2-2-703, C.R.S., which requires that bills which would result in a net increase in periods of imprisonment not be passed without five years of appropriations for prison bed construction and operating costs, the following analysis is provided. Operating costs for the YOS are $35,791 per bed per year. This bill does not create a new crime, rather it allows the transfer of a juvenile offender from one facility to another facility in the DOC, therefore, this fiscal note does not include construction costs. Additionally, there would be a reduction in jail backlog based on the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) as shown in the following table, for a savings of $17,155 per year (or $47.00 per day). Since the bill would allow juvenile offenders who would have been sentenced to the DOC to now be eligible for the YOS, the following table shows the cost between the YOS and the savings to jail backlog.

The bill would have an impact on local government by reducing the number of offenders held in the local jails. Currently, the county jails house convicted offenders who are awaiting placement in a state prison. A juvenile who previously was placed in jail waiting for a bed in the DOC could now be immediately placed in the YOS. Therefore, this fiscal note indicates that there would be a fiscal savings to the county jails of $47.00 per day per offender (or $17,155 annually).

This fiscal note indicates that the Department of Corrections would not require an additional General Fund appropriation for FY 1998-99. However, pursuant to Section 2-2-703, C.R.S., the Department of Corrections would require a five year General Fund appropriation of $186,360 (as noted in the table on page 3).

FIVE-YEAR FISCAL IMPACT ON CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES
Fiscal Year	ADA Impact	YOS Operating Cost	Jail Backlog Cost	Total Cost
FY 98-99	0.0	$0	$0	$0
FY 99-2000	1.0	35,791	(17,155)	18,636
FY 2000-2001	2.0	71,582	(34,310)	37,272
FY 2001-2002	3.0	107,373	(51,465)	55,908
FY 2002-2003	4.0	143,164	(68,620)	74,544
TOTAL		$357,910	($171,550)	$186,360