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2023 Session

Budget Amendments - SB800 (Committee Approved)

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Juvenile Detention Center Efficiency Study (language only)

Item 392 #4s

Item 392 #4s

Public Safety and Homeland Security
Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security

Language

Page 481, after line 48, insert:

"The Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, in collaboration with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, with the cooperation and assistance of the Department of Planning and Budget, the Virginia Association of Counties, and the Virginia Municipal League, shall evaluate and submit to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2023, a report on juvenile detention center cost savings strategies. The report shall include a proposal to reduce state formula financial assistance for juvenile confinement in local facilities (“juvenile detention center block grant”) in order to incentivize consolidation of juvenile detention centers in the Commonwealth. The proposal shall: (i) recommend five to eight juvenile detention centers for consolidation, identifying the five to eight facilities recommended for closure and alternative facilities recommended to house youth impacted by the closures; (ii) describe the criteria used to identify such facilities including, but not limited to, distance between the facilities recommended for closure and the recommended alternative sites of incarceration, funded and licensed capacity, historical and projected average daily population by region, age and condition of facilities and their electronic security systems, outstanding debt service, deferred maintenance and annual maintenance reserve as a percentage of the replacement asset value, potential for repurposing or sale of facilities recommended for closure, regional distribution of juvenile detention centers, and availability of programming; (iii) estimate the state savings that would result from elimination of juvenile detention center block grant funding for facilities recommended for closure, net any expected increase in block grant or per diem funding for facilities recommended to house additional youth; and (iv) recommend two to five options for reinvesting the net savings in services for youth involved or at-risk of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system.

In addition, the report shall assess alternative delivery models for education services at juvenile detention centers, including: (i) determining the extent to which each juvenile detention center currently implements or could further implement cost effective staffing methods, including strategies identified in the 2021 Board of Education report entitled “Recommendations for Appropriate Staffing and Funding Levels Necessary for State Operated Programs (SOPs) in Regional and Local Detention Centers”; (ii) continuing to develop an alternative to the statutorily required 1:12 teacher to student staffing ratio; (iii) utilizing full-time special education teachers to coordinate, plan, and substitute for part-time teachers shared with either the local school division or other state operated programs; and (iv) determining and providing the feasibility and potential cost savings of each alternative delivery model, as well as specific actions to implement each model.



Explanation

(This amendment directs the Secretary of Public Safety, in collaboration with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, to evaluate juvenile detention center cost savings strategies. The Secretary shall report his recommendations to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2023.)