OSSA Calls on Oregon Legislature – Shortfall in Community Corrections Funding, Sept. 12

The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association is calling on the Oregon State Legislature to take immediate action to address a devastating shortfall for Community Corrections in the Department of Corrections (DOC) budget. As partners in public safety, we share a responsibility to keep our communities safe, reduce crime and address the underlying factors that lead to criminal activity. We ask the Oregon Legislature to fix the devastating impact on public safety and address this funding shortfall. THE PROBLEM: As passed, the currently approved DOC budget (SB 5504) funds county community corrections operations statewide at a “baseline” level of $268.5 million. This amount drastically fails to take into account the findings of the recently completed Oregon Department of Corrections “Actual Cost Study” (ACS), which recommended an increase in baseline funding of nearly $50 million to counties to meet the actual cost of providing supervision services. This comprehensive study determined the actual time and cost to supervise the 30,000 people under some type of formal supervision in Oregon counties. The ACS looks at factors including the current risk of the offender population, time spent by county community corrections officials with those on supervision and the costs associated with sanctions and services provided to the offender population. This information is then used to determine the daily rate per individual on supervision which is paid by the state to the county for those services. The ACS findings resulted in an increase of the daily rate from $11.69 to $14.24 per client — which in turn increased the 2019-21 Baseline Funding to $318 million as the amount necessary to meet the actual costs to counties for community corrections services. However, the Oregon Legislature did not approve funding to meet the increased daily rate resulting in counties having to shoulder unfunded services. THE IMPACT: The resulting reduction in baseline funding for statewide community corrections will have immediate, measurable, devastating impacts on county services that treat addiction and reduce recidivism. It will impact public safety and the quality of life in our local communities statewide.