Colorado Legislative Council Staff

STATE

REVISED FISCAL NOTE

(replaces Fiscal Note dated February 25, 1998)

General Fund Expenditure Impact


Drafting Number:

Prime Sponsor(s):

LLS 98-680

Rep. Tucker

Sen. Wells

Date:

Bill Status:

Fiscal Analyst:

March 17, 1998

House Appropriations

Susan Colling (866-4784)

 

TITLE:            CONCERNING STRENGTHENING OF THE STATUTORY PROVISIONS CONCERNING POST-RELEASE SUPERVISION OF OFFENDERS.



Summary of Legislation


            This bill requires completion of 12 months of supervision by any offender who is convicted of a class 2, 3, 4, or 5 felony, or convicted of a class 6 felony and the offender had a prior felony conviction. The bill applies to offenders incarcerated for an offense committed on or after July 1, 1998, whose parole is revoked and returned to prison to serve a period of incarceration. The bill allows the State Parole Board to revoke an offender’s supervision and reincarcerate the offender for up to 12 months. Additionally, the State Parole Board may discharge an offender from supervision prior to completion of 12 months if it is determined that the offender has been reintegrated into society.


            The bill clarifies that an offender is not fully discharged from their sentence until they have completed or been discharged from mandatory parole or their 12 month period of supervision. The bill will be effective July 1, 1998 and will apply to all offenses committed on or after that date.



STATE FISCAL IMPACT SUMMARY

FY 1998/99

FY 1999/2000

FY 2000/01

State Revenues

General Fund

Other Fund



 



 

 

State Expenditures

General Fund

Other Fund


*


*


$656,223

FTE Position Change

 

 

 

Local Government Impact — See Local Government Impact Section below.

 


* Fiscal impact would not occur until FY 2001-02.





State Expenditures


            The bill would have a fiscal impact on expenditures of the Department of Corrections (DOC). The provisions of the bill would prohibit an offender from discharging their sentence or any portion of their mandatory parole period in a state prison. An offender who violates conditions of mandatory parole and subsequently returned to prison, would be required to serve a 12 month supervision period upon release from incarceration. The bill would affect offenders who are returned to prison on technical violations, offenders convicted of a new crime would be incarcerated for that offense, not for a parole revocation. If an offender is released on supervision and violates any conditions, the State Parole Board may return the offender to prison. Should this occur, the offender would then be re-released into the community for a 12 month supervision period. An offender would be required to successfully complete 12 months or an amount of time that the State Parole Board determines to be sufficient and it is decided that the offender has been integrated into society.


            Based on data from the DOC and Legislative Council, it is estimated that the impact of this bill would begin in FY 2001-02 and will have an affect on the number of offenders released and placed under the supervision of a parole officer. Additionally, impact on prison bed space at the DOC will begin in FY 2001-02 with the first group of offenders failing the required 12 month supervision period and being returned to prison. Therefore, the bill would have an impact on parole services and prison beds and each of these areas are discussed below. The bill would continue to have an impact on the Division of Parole Services and bed space at the DOC in subsequent years. This would occur because of the expanded pool of offenders required to have community supervision, which would also expand the number of offenders likely to fail during their supervision period and returning to prison. Additionally, there are those offenders who will continuously impact the system by not successfully completing the supervision period and being released by the State Parole Board who will keep being admitted to prison.



Division of Adult Parole Services: This fiscal note assumes that offenders convicted of a class 6 felony will be the first offenders to decay through the system and have an impact as a result of this bill. However, only class 6 felony offenders with a prior felony conviction would be subject to the provisions of the bill. According to FY 1996-97 data from the Colorado District Attorney's Council (CDAC) database, 65.6 percent of class 6 felony offenders sentenced to the DOC have a prior felony conviction. Of the class 6 offenders, 87.3 percent currently discharge the remainder of their sentence while incarcerated. Since the proposed legislation prohibits offenders from discharging their sentence in prison and requires a period of community supervision, those offenders who would have discharged their sentence in prison would now be required to serve a 12 month supervision period, thus increasing the population under the supervision of the Division of Adult Parole Services. This fiscal note estimates that a class 6 felony offender would serve 11.9 months (average length of stay for a class 6 felony) in DOC, would be released to mandatory parole for an average of 6 months, would be returned to prison for a technical violation for an average of 12 months, and would be released again into the community for their remaining period of parole or a minimum of 12 months of supervision.


            According to Legislative Council Staff, in FY 2000-01, 99.8 class 6 felony offenders will be admitted to prison on a technical violation and will have an average length of stay of 12 months. These offenders do not impact bed space because they would already have returned to prison under current law. However, 65.6 percent of these offenders will have an impact on the parole population as they would not be allowed to discharge their sentence in prison, but instead would be required to serve a 12 month period of supervision in the community. Of the 99.8 offenders revoked to prison, 12.6 offenders would have been released to parole and 87.2 offenders (or 87.3 percent) would have discharged their sentence in prison. The 12.6 offenders released to parole would currently serve six months, however, the bill would require them to serve an additional six months, resulting in 6.3 additional parolees. Overall, this would result in an ADA (Average Daily Attendance) increase on parole services of 93.5 offenders in FY 2001-02 (87.2 offenders + 6.3 offenders = 93.5 ADA).


            The number of offenders released on a 12 month supervision period will increase significantly in FY 2002-03, since class 5 felony offenders would have decayed through the system and would be added to the population supervised under parole services. According to Legislative Council Staff’s December 1997 Prison Forecast, there will be 1,695 technical revocations in FY 2001-02, of these only class 5 and class 6 offenders will be affected by this bill. Data indicate that 33.9 percent of technical revocations are class 5 felony offenders, therefore, 574.6 class 5 felony offenders will be revoked for a technical violation and 105.6 class 6 felony offenders will be revoked for a technical violation. Additionally, 65.2 percent of class 5 felony offenders currently discharge their sentence after being revoked in prison. Again, the bill would prohibit the possibility of discharge, thus, additional offenders would be released to supervision under this bill, increasing the parole ADA in FY 2002-03 to 513.5 offenders (414.6 class 5 + 98.9 class 6 = 513.5). It is important to note that although only class 6 felony offenders with a prior felony conviction are affected by this bill, some first time class 6 offenders will be required to complete the remaining portion of their original mandatory parole period. It is anticipated that the number of offenders placed in the community on supervision will continue to increase each year as a result of this bill.


            Although it is not indicated in this fiscal note, it should be noted that the impact on parole, in addition to the ADA increase, would also be reflected in the number of FTE (approximately 60 offenders for each parole officer) and program and treatment costs. Offenders under the supervision of parole services may be subject to various program requirements; electronic monitoring, participation in the drug and alcohol treatment program called “Treatment Alternative to Street Crime” (TASC), drug screens, and mental health treatment. The cost of these subprograms per parolee are:

 

                      electronic monitoring is approximately $4.10 per day (or $1,497 per year);

                      the TASC program cost $600 annually (78 percent of regular parolees);

                      drug screens average three at $12.50 per week (or $37.50 annually); and

                      specific mental health treatment averages $250 per parolee (52 percent of parolees).



DOC Bed Impact: The bill would have an impact on DOC bed space in FY 2001-02, as offenders fail the supervision period and are returned to prison for technical violations. It is assumed that class 6 felony offenders will again be the first to impact bed space as 10 percent of offenders placed on supervision will be revoked for a technical violation. Therefore, in FY 2001-02, 9.4 (93.5 X 10 percent) offenders released to supervision will be reincarcerated prior to completing the 12 month supervision period and will serve time in prison for 12 months (as is consistent with current practice by the State Parole Board). Additionally, there will be an impact on bed space at the DOC in FY 2002-03 at the same rate (10 percent) for both class 5 and class 6 felony offenders being revoked for a technical violation. However, while class 6 felony offenders will have a 9.9 ADA impact, class 5 felony offenders will have a 41.5 ADA impact, resulting in an increase in the overall ADA of 51.4 in FY 2002-03. It should be noted that in future years impact will increase for all felony classes.



Five-Year Fiscal Impact on Correctional Facilities


            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. Construction costs are

 estimated to be $69,811 per bed and operating costs $23,352 per bed. It should be noted that the construction costs reflect the funding needed to construct the beds in the fiscal year prior to when the additional offenders would enter the system.



FIVE-YEAR FISCAL IMPACT ON CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES

Fiscal Year

ADA Impact

Construction Cost

Operating Cost

Total Cost

FY 98-99

0.0

$0

$0

$0

FY 99-2000

0.0

0

0

0

FY 2000-2001

0.0

656,223

0

656,223

FY 2001-2002

9.4

2,932,062

219,509

3,151,571

FY 2002-2003

51.4

670,185

1,200,293

1,870,478

TOTAL

 

$4,258,470

$1,419,802

$5,678,272



Spending Authority


            This fiscal note indicates that no additional spending authority or appropriation would be required in FY 1998-99 to implement the provisions of the bill. The Department of Corrections should receive a five year appropriation (pursuant to Section 2-2-703, C.R.S.) of $5,678,272 General Fund.



Departments Contacted


            Department of Corrections

            Legislative Council