Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: We are live.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Fifth center appropriation, Tuesday, March 10. We're going through FY '27 budget request. Today, we have department of corrections. Thanks for joining us. I'll introduce yourselves in previous budget presentation. You already have up. Well done. Great.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Thanks for having us. Kristen Calvert, deputy commissioner of corrections. My name is TA executive director of finance for corrections. So I'll start us off by going through an overview. I know you folks are pretty familiar with us. So starting with this overview, we are housed in the Agency of Human Services, as you know. We're a unified system, so that means we have pretrial, detained individuals, sentenced individuals, community supervision, which is probation, parole, furlough. We have six in state facilities, five for men, one per woman, and one out of state contracted facility for men. We have 12 probation and parole offices and a Vermont Correctional Academy. Current staff is eleven twenty one conditions. And I'll talk a little bit more about vacancies.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Have you guys ever talked about, as part of the unified system, also including transportation detainees?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: You mean to and from court? It's certainly come up, and maybe I'll

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: leave it

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: at that.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Okay. Yeah. We have talked about it from time to time, I think. And that'd be a conversation we would partner with the sheriff,

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: so I think to really understand

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: and enhance them.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Right. And I guess that they're when I don't they didn't wanna call it a recommendation because they didn't wanna I don't know. They didn't wanna call it a recommendation, but they threw it out there that maybe the judiciary should be the ones in charge of that since Okay. They're the ones scheduling the court dates. Mhmm. But you're you don't really have any role in that at this point other than

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Not at

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: this you need to

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Right. But, you know, we're open to the conversation with anyone.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Right. Okay.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: So looking at 2025 numbers in staffing, we had 214 new hires. Overall staff vacancy rate for the year was 12.7, facilities that was 15.7, and the field was 8.7.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Do you know how many people left?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It was 22 and a half percent the last I checked. So that

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: was our penetration rate. So First half. 20% would be, like, 40 people. 20% would be 21. About the new hires. I guess it was Oh, the new hire. Of how many you're bringing in and how many you're losing. Are you, like, losing as many as you're gaining?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Not as many, but higher than we would like, certainly. I don't have that number with me today, but we

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: can call percent of your total would be, like, 200.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Yes. Yeah. So

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: it's it's high still.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Thank you. I'm just wondering what it means for staffing. Like, what

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: does the field mean? The field

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: is probation for all days. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. That makes sense.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Because I assume if the facility's That's why you have a higher vacancy there because it's more difficult to hire the people working inside the facility.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Correct. Yeah.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: There is a 2% decrease decrease, so that's a success.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It is a success. I think we are seeing success for sure. I do think, you know, our kind of baseline for facility vacancies has been trending in the 15% area, whereas pre COVID, it was more like between five and ten

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: to give you some kind of contrast.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: What I've heard from correction employees is that it's really just the hours. Yeah. Like Absolutely. They don't the the pay that feels well, I'm sure they want some of them they thought the starting pay should be higher, but I didn't heard really complaining about the payer benefits. It's just the force over time or the hours that they so that they forced to go in when they have

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: a shot

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: of birthright or whatever.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Certainly. It's hard work and having hours like that is much harder. For our parturative population, we've seen a sixteen percent increase in incarcerated individuals. We have a graph a little later on to give you an individual what that looks like compared to prior years, and then even farther back, I think, to 2015 or 2013. We've had an increase of the male population of 1344% for females. That's largely due to the detention population for females.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Just getting smaller, so the percentage of higher Yes. And they're all in the same facility?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: All in the same facility, yes. Total releases from incarceration, so detained individuals and sentenced individuals, was four thousand two hundred and fifty three and twenty five, a 2% increase in supervised population over the previous year. Our department priorities, and there's lot of detail on this of our strategic plan that's on our website, but large staffing is first because that is our first priority at the moment just because of the ripple effects throughout the system. And what that means is decreasing staffing vacancies and retaining certainly what's

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: our And what are you trying to do to do that?

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Like, it

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: seems like a tough nut to crack.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It is. I think we're not having a recruiting problem. We're seeing high attendance at our academies higher than pre COVID numbers. It's really the retention. And I think the climbing out of the COVID highest vacancy rate of around 30% has really stifled facilities in the retention arena, largely due to the number of hours. We've implemented a number of things over the past few years because we heard that a lot of the influence came from the supervisor ranks. So we developed a program for supervisors to help them transition from supervising correctional or from incarcerated folks as a correctional officer to shift to supervising staff as a supervisor. So we've implemented some of those things within the ranks to help with retention. We also created the last I don't remember if it was the prior fiscal year, the one before, but a position called a staff experience supervisor. So that person is focused on recruitment, and they also kind of attach to those folks for their first six months to a year of employment to mentor them throughout their kind of first journey. We've seen a

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: lot of success with that.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It just gives them kind of a go to, a mentor. So those are a couple of things.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And are you not requiring this first year of probation time in six months, not doing

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: the forced overtime. Not mandatory.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, I think we're recommending that it's not mandatory and we kind of recommend they don't volunteer for a lot until they've got good solid

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: footing. Our

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: health and wellness priority, this one speaks to incarcerated folks. We do have some wellness initiatives embedded in the staffing priority as well. But the wellness priority is focused on our eleven fifteen waiver implementation and increasing offering for substance abuse disorder treatment within our facility. DEI injustice is exactly what that is. And what that does is looks at our staff retention, how we hire, how we promote folks, and equitable correctional practices. So really examining our policies and directives to make sure we remove as much bias as possible, and then also kind

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: of track trends related to that.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Modernization speaks to not only technology, but modernizing our practices and modernizing our facilities. Replacing a women's facility hopefully in the next, I'm gonna say five years to put the good energy into these first, but we'll see what actually

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Can I had at one point, I had my eye on that facility as it moved through the process? Can you just update us on where it is?

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: How much money we have set aside?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: We have about 15,000,000 set aside. We'll we'll put a request for next biennium for more funding. We were turned down by ethics and moved on to an RFP process. Mhmm. So, you know, we'll still consider state owned owned property, but now we're looking to bid for privately owned land. We think that might help us as far as zoning and permitting. I think those bids are due around the end of the month, so I have another update.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: They're bidding like we have land that will sell you to build facility? Correct.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Yeah.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Thank you. And do you have an estimate on the total count? Is that too early?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: What type of And this includes kind of all the things that we need up before you put a shovel on the ground, but probably between $1.20 and $1.40 from what we know right now. That has shifted as the project pushes out because of

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: the cost of supplies, I think, hopefully.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: So as of right now, that's,

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I think, where we're headed. Very total. It'd probably be a bond as per the capital. Yeah. Mhmm. And do you do tours of the women's facility? Welcome folks. Hear a lot of I have lot of constituents that don't want a new woman's visit, but I think if they wouldn't visit the current one, their mind's got changed really.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. I do. And, you know, we do have a women's stakeholder group as we call it now, and we meet quarterly. We have a lot of folks at the table, advocacy groups, abolitionist groups, because I think it's important to include all those voices at the table. It's also helping us to examine what we're doing now so we don't carry forward practices into a new building. So we welcome all those folks to reach out

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: to them.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Correctional facility, so this just gives you kind of a visual of our population and growth and kind of change. So in that kind of teal color, we have the total and $14.53 was the total as of this slide at the end of fiscal twenty five, but today's incarcerated total sixteen forty four. So we are trending upwards as this graph indicates overall, certainly not at our high at over 2,000 back in 2014, but still trying to start to trend upward.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And what's the degree to treat? What does mean when they're held, but they haven't been what's difference between, I guess, detained and held? Would think that's what you're saying.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, detained is when their trial is pending or their court case. And then once they're sentenced, then they're sentenced person.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Those are

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: They must hold?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Believe both of the federal folks. And that could be marshals, so if they're pending federal cases.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Oh, they're you're just they're using our facilities to hold? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: The second figure gives you a comparison and breaks it down by in state and out of state. Our out of state population has decreased from almost 500 in 2013 to 117 as of this graph, but today I

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: believe it's 50. We have recently had to spend more votes out. Right.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: We did end the budget adjustment. Correct. Okay. Senator Watson.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Oh, I think I answered my own question. Okay. Which is just I

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: like these graphs. I don't remember seeing these before to give the historical context.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. I agree.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Because we were just seeing the last three years, which has been increases.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yes. But this gives you yeah.

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: It shows.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: We also have a lot of dashboards on our website of what you're interested. I would encourage you to check those out. So field services and probate or parole. So you can see here we've same kind of trends as facilities. We were pretty high in 2016. So the number of people in parole? Correct. This is combined, so it's probation, parole, and furlough. We're starting to trend upwards. The graph is showing you forty one ninety two, and today we are at forty seven fifty eight. So again, trending upward, even in the field.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: What's the ratio of parole officers to what's their caseload?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Oh, great question. I can do that math and follow-up with you Okay. For sure. Yeah. I don't have it off

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: the top of my head.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: The second one kinda gives you a breakdown of probation, parole, and furlough in the field. So looking at the far right for twenty twenty five, eighty one percent of the folks in the field are on probation, fifteen percent on parole, and four percent

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: on furlough.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Can you remind me what furlough is?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Folks that have can be released, I think, ninety days pre minimum sentence, and that's kind of their integration opportunity to

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: come back into the into the field.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: They could be both furloughed and probation.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Depending on if they have other sentence. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There's all kinds of different combinations. Next up, healthcare. This gives a very minimal kind of screenshot of a very complex population. You'll see 3,192 sick calls in comparison to a population, I think, as of this chart was 4,100 or so total for the year. We have well, actually

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: If we

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: can skip to the next one, it might be a little easier to look at. It gives percentages and numbers versus the bar graph. So, okay, so we've got fifty eight percent of folks on medically assisted treatment. That's kind of the MOUD is another way to refer to that. Excuse me, twelve percent is considered geriatric in our facilities, and that's fifty five plus. That really

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: This is total or those of the health patients?

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: The total population. Yeah.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It is like we categorize geriatric folks as 55 plus, it's just due to the nature of being in a correctional facility. It's more stressful, harder on the body, A number of different things.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I don't consider myself Jerry. No. But maybe I would if I would been Jerry. Give it a few years. I'm over the It's definitely one of us at this

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: seventy eight percent have a chronic illness. I think that's a pretty staggering number. The folks that come into our system are not in a great place, maybe have not had access to healthcare ever or in a very long time. Fifty five percent are on our mental health caseload. Three percent is SFI or serious function impairment. And then ninety five percent are prescribed a medication. The last statistic I saw is that the number of medications averages about five per person.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Ninety five percent of the population. Is mental.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yep. And then forty two percent of those are psychotropic medication.

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: Can can you just define psychotropic?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I believe that's tied to your mental health caseload, so it has something to do with their

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay. So these have been assigned since they got into church?

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: Yes. Correct. They

[Senator Robert Norris (Member)]: come in with that. They were once they got Well

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: they could have.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: They could have. Yeah. So and yeah. Thank you. I think you said this really fast, though. SFI. Yeah. Serious functioning serious functional impairment. Okay. Yeah. So

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: that's always been kind of a interesting definition for us, isn't it?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: That's fair. So yeah.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: So I won't I won't take us there. But Okay. Yeah.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I use that term in other parts.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Yeah. I can remember talking with Sally Fox for hours about SFI and her passion for the work for those folks. Do we can I ask you a question?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Do you think the definition is not accurate?

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: No. Definition is fine. Okay. It's just we haven't talked about it. Okay.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Right. And I haven't heard it outside of corrections. Haven't heard that term.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: ER visits are something that we saw increase dramatically over the last several years, sixty three in December alone, eight twenty five in fiscal twenty five, and six ninety eight in '24. That was really the first time we started tracking them. So we don't have more historical data than that, but it's something we're working really closely at. We've also developed a team called the Central Operations Division, and that's a suite of folks that only do hospital coverage as a primary function. They're correctional officers in training, and they can also support if they don't have a post in a hospital at that time to help other facilities fill schedule gas.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Are these people transported by ambulances or by DOC staff?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: By ambulance, yeah. So they're coming to the hospital system via ambulance, and then they're admitted first.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And then there's a DOC employee that stays there.

[Senator Robert Norris (Member)]: Correct. The department charged for each response from the town, from City Of Rhode Island?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: For the ambulance service, yes. Once they're admitted, then Medicaid picks up that after twenty four hours. But if they return to us within that time frame, then we pick up the bill for that through the contract. Back to staff vacancies, so you have a visual of where we've been. So like I said in the beginning, kind of our historical average was between 510%, which was somewhat normal. We started to climb once COVID kicked in, and we had to lock down our facilities, and the network just became much more remote for folks. Despite just between '22 and '23, the high was right around thirty percent. I think we've made a lot of great progress so far, and I feel like we're normalizing out in this kind of 15 to 18 range, hoping we can still make progress towards getting it back to the five between five and eight. I think that was much more sustainable for our staff.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Do you know where it would need to be to not have to do the mandatory overtime?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I don't know exactly. I think mandatory overtime has always existed on some level. I think when you're considering call outs and maybe military deployment, FMLA, workers' comp and things of that nature, but I think it's dramatically decreased and becomes more voluntary basis when you're in that kind of five to maybe 12 range. Now on to budget. I'll walk through kind of the key changes, and then I'll turn it over to Marlene to walk through our ups and downs if that's what you've confirmed.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: We don't need to go through all the downs, just any any highlights.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Okay. This this might highlight everything.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay. Maybe.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: So we have the first two bullets are the normal annual allocation of salary and benefits, and then the internal service funds and the EDS service level agreement. The largest increase for the WellPath contract puts into base what we requested in BAA, so that's the ADP increase for the contract because our population increased. And then in BAA, was prorated for the Burlington Recovery Project and our substance use. And then this has the full year and putting those increases into base. There's a small increase in the out of state bed use, and that again was first introduced in BAA and then that's put it into base. And that is again because of the capacity issues at our facilities. We had to send a few more men out of state to be able to work with the increase. Let's see. There were a couple of increases in operating expenses, and I believe it's mostly just to regulate to our where the hell the mileage, the leases that we have to have. Sorry, there was increases as we swapped out vehicles. There's a small increase to transitional housing under the Justice Reinvestment section, 338.1. What that is, is to keep beds online for Burlington Housing Authority who lost some federal funding. So this ensures that we maintain the bed capacity that we have in that area. There's a couple of decreases in some contracts that we have just to realign with the direction that we're going. We did some work to kind of create a base, and then now we're refocusing on the work and

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: we don't need the kind of,

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I don't know the capacity building fund, but like the first kind

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: of startup fund with those contracts.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: And those were for some advertising and then some mentorship programs.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Did your total budget increase come in under the 3% target?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I don't believe so. I'll turn that over to Marlene, and she can me. I'll run that away. Can I

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: do these first? Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Thank you.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: In BAA, we talked a little bit about a random moment time study, and that is what our probation officers participate in to validate the work that they're doing so that we can charge Medicaid for some of that work. So then we were able to decrease our reliance on general fund for that. So in BAA, was one time, and then similar to

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: what PATHIS was at MOD.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: What is the target supposed to be with any other

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: bullet point?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: That's not the target. Just Your

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: expense is that at Target? You've been going Target, Lauren?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. Okay. You want to take us away on

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: It's fair enough. Just got a quick question. In reference to the increase in The United States best due to the increased population, I know we have a contract, I think, through justice oversight.

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: Yeah.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: The the number is is what number is a 100 and we actually have for beds out of state and if we exceed that number, the price goes up on that? How does that work?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah. No. That's a great question. Thank you. We have the contract allows us to send, I think, up to 300 folks out of state. Do not We're not budgeted for that many. We tried to keep our budget in relation to what we're actually spending. And so before, we've been able to stay within that budget. I think we're around 117, and then we have to send a larger number of folks out, but didn't have the budget for it. So that is how that

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So we're over 300 now, what you're saying? No, we're at 150. At 150.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, capacity we have 300, but we're budgeted for a smaller amount.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So if we stay below the 150, are those the monies that shift back into the reinvestment program or?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Think that ended a year or a year or so back, what we had done in the previous fiscal year is carried that forward to account for per diem rate increases in the contract, which we didn't have to do last time.

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: So in other words, reinvestment no longer reinvest?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, that carry forward for investment ended, I think, last January. Senator Sears.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Wasn't a coincidence that those two things happened. Yeah. Because he would have

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: certainly reunited.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: So we had CSG come in a couple of times on that justice oversight. So we probably should check with them about.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. Were instrumental in getting to our Sears. So who eliminated that? Justice Reinvestment?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It had a sunset date and it just

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: lacked. So

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I don't think it was eliminated on purpose.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: justice reinvestment one was considered successful. So senator Sears created justice reinvestment two. And then it was, you know, done with a series of short term sunsets because so as not to be a permanent a permanent transfer, but we we have not re upped it. So but it's on the table if you're interested.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. I wonder if it did help corrections or other aspects of of that reduced costs, knowing that the money would come back and help reduce costs more.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, I think it was really great. I think we're able to do a lot of great stuff with it. For one example, we have a grant with Ginny's Promise we probably wouldn't have been able to do before. I think the only kind of cautionary thing I would say is that it's hard to create long term programs with one time funds. So if we weren't sure about how much, then we couldn't write a grant for that and we didn't want to make a promise to vendors. You know, have them hire staff, excuse me, and stand up great programs if we didn't know we'd be able to fund it. Sure. We

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: also just not not that anybody needs to know this, but it occurs to me. We also had a goal under Tim Ash as Pro Tem to reduce down to zero, the number we were sending out of state. That was a challenge, and we got it down. Obviously, COVID messed with that. We're back up to one hundred and fifty now. But, you know, that's out there as a policy challenge, I would think, for the legislature going forward is, you know, we always, I think, wanted to take care of all of our people in the state, but we were challenged for space. So there was an active program to reduce that that was working,

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: but that also has Is it cheaper? I know it's better for the inmates, but is it cheaper to send your colleagues?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: It's much cheaper. Yeah. In state is, I think, $3.15 per day per person. Out of state, there's a general population, and then they have an MAT program now that we've them stand up. So it's between like ninety and one hundred twenty, think.

[Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons (Member)]: What's that acronym, MAT? It's the drug treatment program.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Yeah, sorry. Yeah.

[Senator Robert Norris (Member)]: Just a question in that, probably I'm the only one in

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: the room that doesn't know it, but what

[Senator Robert Norris (Member)]: constitutes a necessity to put a person, send a person out of state? It's not just lack of room, it's the

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: No, I mean, lack of room is kind of the primary driver. The facility serves as a relief valve for us if we're getting overcapacity or we're concerned that we're gonna be overcapacity. There is an extension, a specific evaluation of folks before we send them out to make sure they wouldn't be too destabilized. There's no programming requirement or if there is, we bring them back in time to do that prior to release. We consider things like enrollment in education, family connections, enrollment in CCB, because folks are now able to do post secondary education, what their employment is, so if there are cook in the kitchen that's really valuable, a number of factors that have really expanded, I think, this last time, I think really gave us an opportunity to examine how we do that. So it's not an arbitrary decision based on one thing. There's a lot of work that goes

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: into that. Is it

[Senator Robert Norris (Member)]: just a question of who would, you know, 150 people have to go out of state in these, and then you evaluate who they should be.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, we try, we kind of have a goal in place, and then if we can get to that, fine. If we really think it'd be, you know, detrimental negative impact to someone, we don't send them. I think our first, our goal was 30 in this last trip and we sent 28, so that speaks to that kind of evaluation process. And a couple folks did come back because we sent them and there were things that we didn't consider. So I think, you know, we're all constantly evaluating for the good of the folks and the good

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: of the system as well.

[Senator Robert Norris (Member)]: You know, and one final, it has a direct correlation to the 16% increase in incarceration, I'm sure

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: too, right? Yeah. I mean, obviously. Okay.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Hey. Do you wanna talk us through the budget?

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: I wanna look at the three factors. Sure.

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: That's okay. Proportion. So the next page is a tree graph, which is proportional budget size so that you can see correctional services, which is include facilities and probation and parole, and then the size in reference to that for the others. So the total budget increase is $13,000,002.72 $2.75, which is 5.75% above the SFI 2026 as past appropriation of 230,877.018. And the total general fund increase is 9,660,546, which is 4.37% above the SFY 26 as past appropriation of 221,183,300. The total FY '27 budget is presented is $244.149293 And the general fund total is 2 and $30.843846 which is 94.6% of the total budget. And the special fund total is $2,000,087,653, which is point 9% of the total budget. And the ITF is $545,099 which is point 2%. And the internal service fund is 676,463, which is point 3%. Federal fund is 581,719, and it's point 2%. And then the Medicaid global commitment fund is 1,900,740, which is point 8% increase. And the investment global commitment fund is 7,513,702, which is 3.1. So with the Section eleven fifteen waiver and the RMTS study, both of those have

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: gone up for that reason.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: What is the special fund that comes into paperless?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yeah, so that's a combination of a few different funds. One is surplus property. So if we sell an item or if surplus sells an item on our behalf, we receive the funds and then we have to spend out of that fund. Another large portion of that is supervision fees. And those are the fees that we charge to individuals under supervision that meet certain criteria in the field. We use those funds to offset probation and parole operational costs. So we need that spending authority to be able to utilize those funds. And then finally is pilot fund and that's payment in lieu of taxes for Newport and Springfield. And those are agreements we have with those two towns because the facilities are housed there and helps them. I think those are the three largest categories. There might be very minuscule things within that.

[Senator Richard Westman (Member)]: Thank you. That's all I'm looking at. So

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: then we're up to the ups and downs. So I'm not sure if you want to dive into that or

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: If you've already done that, I like that you have these, whatever this is, three years, perhaps. Yeah. Helpful. See, longer longer. Unless there's something in these ups and downs that you didn't already tell us.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I think we covered the biggest pieces.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Remember in the VA, the is it well path? Is it the contract? So that went up because of the employees that are still going up here in the budget.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yes. To just fall through. Yeah. Fall through to put it in the base. And that's, I think, seven employees for the recovery pro the Burlington recovery project and substance use. Those those are kind of

[Marlene [Last Name Unknown], Executive Director of Finance, Department of Corrections]: braided together. And also

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: just more people, more units you have, the higher the contract cost per contract?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Yes. Correct. Those are the two main drivers of that increase.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. Well, we can look at it. I don't know who your person is on the committee. Who is who is corrections?

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Senator Norris is our person.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: He'll he'll study it.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Okay. Good.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: They'll report back. It's fine. Okay. If there's no other questions or you don't have any last comments.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: I don't have any last comments. Thanks for having us.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. Appreciate it. Your work there.

[Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections]: Coming in and hope you enjoy the rest of a beautiful day.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yes. Important work. So with that, we can adjourn for the day.