Connecticut
Step 3: Quantify savings and reinvest in select high-stakes communities.
Working with the CSG team, state policymakers adopted policies designed to avert costs and realize actual savings. These savings would allow officials to reinvest in initiatives to promote fiscal effectiveness, improve outcomes for communities, and advance public safety.
- With overwhelming bipartisan support, the General Assembly enacted legislation to manage prison growth safely, generate savings and reinvest in particular high-stakes communities.3
- An “Act Concerning Prison Overcrowding,” passed in 2004, included provisions to streamline the parole process, reduce parole and probation violations by 20 percent, ensure a period of supervision for all persons released from prison, and require the state to develop a comprehensive re-entry plan to address high recidivism rates.
- In 2004, legislators canceled the state’s contract with Virginia for 2,000 additional beds, in turn yielding $30 million annually in averted costs.
- The legislature reinvested $13 million of the savings in community-based strategies for reducing recidivism and increasing public safety. As part of this reinvestment, $1 million was earmarked for community-led planning processes in New Haven and Hartford to develop neighborhood-focused initiatives to further integrate funding streams and achieve better outcomes for residents. Funding also was provided to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to support community-based programming.
- With the reinvested funds, probation officials established two programs. The Probation Transition Program (PTP) targets “split sentence” probationers, focusing on opportunities to reduce the number of technical violations while the person is on probation. The Technical Violations Unit (TVU) provides intensive treatment and supervision for probation violators who otherwise would have been incarcerated.
- The state hired 96 new probation officers between 2004 and 2005, reducing caseloads from approximately 160 cases per officer in January 2004 to approximately 100 cases per officer in June 2005.4
- Connecticut General Assembly, Substitute House Bill 5211, Public Act No. 04-234, “An Act Concerning Prison Overcrowding,” enacted 2004.
- Program Review and Investigations Committee, “Public Act 04-234 Compliance Monitoring Report,” December 13, 2005.