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Joint Budget Committee - Pre-Fiscal Session Budget Hearings

March 5, 2020 ·9:00 AM ·Room A, MAC ·1:51:45
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Unknown speaker 0:00
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Speaker 2 4:00
If you folks will grab a seat, we'll get ready to get going.
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Chair Unverified 4:30
We'll go to work. Representative Dotson, you're recognized? Thank
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Representative Jim Dotson Unverified 4:47
you, Mr. Chair. Working with ASU last night and looking through, I think we've got something they can be agreeable to, and hopefully everyone else can be agreeable to as well. I'm going to make a motion that we do Senator Blake Johnson's recommendation of yesterday and increase ASU Jonesboro's recommended amount by the 4.71% that University of Arkansas Fayetteville has an equivalent amount to them over last year's base and also approve AHEC-REC
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Speaker 14 5:34
on all the rest of the institutions and that's my motion for the cash
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Speaker 17 5:43
appropriations. So, who is 16? Hang on a minute.
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 5:54
Hang on a minute. so restate the motion just so that everybody's got it okay y'all pay attention this is emotional higher ed higher ed in this
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Representative Jim Dotson Unverified 6:03
specifically is the top of page three of the handout from yesterday anyway the handout e2d and asu jonesboro cash appropriations to have it increase the equivalent of 4.71% similar to what the University of Arkansas Fayetteville had over last year's base. So 4.71% over the 2-13-8-25. Whatever that works out to. And then A-HEC-REC on all the rest of the recommendations. A-HEC-B-REC. A-HEC-B-REC. Yes. Alright. Alright. We got a question
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Speaker 22 6:39
or two. Hang on. You're on over there. Thank you, Mr.
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Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified 6:53
Chair. Since I wasn't here, I just wanted just a bit of a brief explanation in
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Speaker 27 6:59
regards to is this an increase based on ASU taking on Henderson State? Is this, I mean, what is this increase based upon?
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Speaker 28 7:10
So you want to answer that, Mr. Anderson?
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Speaker 30 7:16
No, sir. this this isn't based on henderson state this is just looking at we looked at some of the individual budgets yesterday and asu jonesborough had some uh a couple motions that failed to reduce their excess appropriation and apparently this is a um a compromise that's been worked out to have their increase by 4.7 percent okay as opposed to the 10 10 percent that it is now
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Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified 7:43
Oh, they wanted to increase to 10%. Okay. I mean, I'm not opposed to it. I just wanted to know about it. So if it's a compromise that has been worked out, then I guess
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 7:56
that would be fine. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 8:04
Senator Chesfield, did you accidentally hit your button? I did indeed hit my button purposefully. You recognize. And I'm going to go ahead and go along with this. rather than continuing to fight about the budgets of higher ed. I don't want to continue to hold them up. I'm glad that there is a compromise. I still worry that we continue to decide that we know better than those institutions what they need. But in the name of trying to get this done, I will go along with this compromise that has the gun at the head of ASU if we don't do this. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 8:44
Representative Wooten, do you have an input?
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 8:50
Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. What does it do about Henderson? Does it leave Henderson at 95? It leaves it alone. It leaves it alone. Yes, sir. So, in other words, we're talking about giving them $10 million more, roughly? Yes. Half of $23 million. Okay. thank you sir thank you all right members i got a motion on the floor
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 9:15
i have a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor aye opposed
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Chair Unverified 9:24
you guys have it thank you
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Speaker 2 9:27
thank you representative dodson where does that leave us kevin department of corrections oh english first Audit, you want to come? You look so excited.
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 9:59
All right, introduce yourself and tell us
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Speaker 48 10:03
about your findings. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Don Morgan, legislative audit supervisor. we have one finding for the June 30 2018 audit report it's on page one of your finding handout this finding is in regards to a finding we had in our 2017 report the fiscal year 2017 audit of the agency dated July 2nd 2018 included a finding regarding discrepancies between inventory records of amounts issued to inmates and the request made by inmates on their order forms at the McPherson unit inmate council. Agency management response to this finding as presented in the 2017 report was the agency agrees with this finding that the internal controls in this area should be strengthened. ADC internal audit tests inmate council inventories and point of sale controls on a regular basis. Their findings will be reported to the unit warden and ADC management for action on discrepancies and recommendation for best practices to be implemented uniformly at all inmate council locations. During our fiscal year 18 audit, we requested the agency internal audit provide reports or other documentation of any testing procedures performed on inmate council inventories since fiscal year 2017 report date and none were provided that concludes the findings for our 2018 report thank you mr morgan any questions thank
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Speaker 53 11:32
you sir josh you're coming up
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Speaker 55 11:46
good morning You're recognized, tell us who you are. Thank you Mr. Chairman, Joshua Twitty, Bureau of Legislative Research. Our first appropriation will
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Speaker 56 12:01
be the Division of Administration and Shared Services which will be on page two. That should be behind your volume one tab. Looking at the Division Appropriations Summer, you'll notice that there are four total appropriations. All of which are from Act 910, Transformation and Efficiencies Act. Three of the four appropriations were transferred from Department of Finance and Administration Appropriations. As the committee may notice, there are zeros in the other columns with the exception of the agency request and the exec recommendation. This is due to Act 910. Our first appropriation line item is on page three. This is the Criminal Detention Facility Review. This appropriation provides for personal services and operating expenses for the Criminal Detention Facility Review in the Department of Corrections. The agency requests an exact recommendation of over $143,000 reflects the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. Moving on to our next appropriation item on page 5, it is the Department of Corrections. This creates the new cabinet level department for the Department of Corrections and establishes the Secretary of the Department of Corrections. This appropriation provides for the Office of the Secretary's salary. The agency request of $200,800 matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. On to our next appropriation line items on page 7. The appropriation is the Criminal Detention Committee expenses. This provides for operating expense of the Criminal Detention Committee. It is funded from general revenues through the miscellaneous agency's fund account. The agency request of a little over 18,000 matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. We're on to our final appropriation line item, which is on page 9. This is the Transportation of Juvenile Offenders. This appropriation provides for support grants to provide transportation services for juvenile offenders in the Department of Corrections. This is funded from general revenues through the Miscellaneous Agencies Fund account. The exact recommendation and agency request of $187,000 matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. Mr. Chairman, this concludes the presentation of the Department of Corrections, Administration and Shared Services. all right members
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Representative Dwight Tosh Unverified 14:41
that is shared services is there any questions for him for Josh seeing none we need a motion
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Chair Unverified 14:49
I have a motion a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor aye opposed the ayes have it all
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Speaker 64 14:58
right Josh continue on our next presentation will be
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Speaker 56 15:03
the Division of Community Correction, which starts on page 12. Arkansas Community Corrections mission is to enhance public safety by enforcing state laws and court mandates through community partnerships and evidence-based programs. Looking at the total division appropriation summary, you'll notice that there are five appropriations, of which two have increased over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. The legislative recommendation is 126.2 million in fiscal year 21 which is an increase of a little over 96,000 over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. The department's first appropriation is on page 15. This appropriation line item is the residents cash treasury. The residential services appropriation provides for the operation of the community correction facilities commissary the legislative recommendation is 3.1 million which matches which matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount there aren't any changes on page 16 you'll see the community correction special appropriation line item the Department of Community Correction is responsible for adult probation and parole services the legislative recommendation is for 18 million which is a slight increase of a little over four thousand over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount this this increase is solely due to career service payments in regular salaries and matching to our next appropriation line item on page 18 is the county jail reimbursement county jail reimbursement is used in the event that the Department of Correction or Department of Community Correction could not accept inmates from county jails due to insufficient bed space each agency would have to reimburse the counties for housing the inmates the legislative recommendation is for 3 million which matches the fiscal year 20 amount there aren't any changes on page 20 you'll see our next appropriation which is community correction state the Department of Community Correction uses this appropriation for daily operations the The legislative recommendation is $100.6 million. This is a slight increase of $92,000 over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. We will now look at the appropriation line items with changes. Increases in the regular salary and matching are due to career service payments. Increases in the or slight decrease in the operating expense is due to a one-time cost for the previous fiscal year to obtain additional probation parole officers. In the professional fees, there's a slight increase due to a budget class transfer for recovery coach community-based programs and an increase in medical contracts. On page 22, you'll see our next appropriation line item, which is court accountability grants. This provides for the distribution of grant funds to adult and juvenile specialty court programs. The legislative recommendation is 1.4 million, which matches the 1.4 million authorized amount. there aren't any changes. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my presentation on the Division of Community Correction. Thank
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 18:18
you, Josh. That was the Division of Community Corrections. Are there any questions
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Senator Bart Hester Unverified 18:22
for Josh? Senator Hester? Yes. I got two questions. First, I'm starting on page 12. There's a substantial amount of money in special revenue. What is that
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Speaker 75 18:33
special? What is the special revenue when you can
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Speaker 22 18:45
you shout it out but you got it I would say per my knowledge
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Speaker 56 18:53
service do solely to fees and I think additional I think other than fees maybe the agency maybe
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Speaker 55 18:58
I'll defer that to the agency okay the agency I think is prepared to answer that I'll ask one question do you have a okay come on up tell us who you are and you're
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Speaker 81 19:30
recognized yes sir jerry bradshaw i'm the director of the division of community correction the special revenue is from supervision fees charged to offenders they pay a $35 a month supervision fee while they're on supervision. Any other questions? Yeah I've got one more question. The
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Senator Bart Hester Unverified 19:48
governor said in his balanced budget that he was going to put out and maybe I'm off like 2.6 million more dollars in community corrections. Is that in
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Speaker 22 19:59
here? No. Okay good enough. We'll ask Jake in a while. All right thank you. Thank you. Any other
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 20:07
questions? Let's see. You might just stay. We got some more questions. I was
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Speaker 86 20:20
wrong. Representative Love, is that you again? It's me. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I don't
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Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified 20:26
think this is a question of staff. I'm looking back on page, I think it was county jail reimbursements. i think that was on page 19 and we don't see any increase uh legislatively or through the governor
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Speaker 27 20:42
is is there is is there going to be an increase to the county jail reimbursement i think the governor said
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 20:50
there would be it's just not in here it's just not in here right Jake, you want to come up and tell them about it? More bed space. Tell us who you are and you're recognized.
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Speaker 93 21:12
Jake, lead DFA Office of Budget. The budget manuals that
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Speaker 94 21:15
we're presenting today are the executive and legislative recommendations that came out of the FY19 session. the way I think about it is what we're really establishing are the recommendations for the Appropriation Acts that we'll be drafting for consideration the fiscal any changes from these recommendations such as those that the governor presented yesterday in the balanced budget will be presented to the General Assembly during the fiscal session through a governor's letter so yesterday for example the governor proposed an increase in funding for county jail reimbursement it'll be about 1.1 1.2 million dollars we'll present that in a governor's letter during
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Speaker 96 21:49
the fiscal session it's not presented
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Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified 21:52
here though okay all right I'm looking at and all my my colleagues are saying our $32 per day now if I'm not mistaken we just agreed to a contract for privatization for $44 a day is that is that not if I am I am I correct
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Speaker 98 22:13
on the the the deal with LaSalle is for $44
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Speaker 102 22:17
I'm sorry Wendy Kelly secretary department of corrections yes sir you are correct the contract that was
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Chair Unverified 22:31
entered between the department of correction and the camp Bradley and drew counties is for 44 per day when that facility
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Speaker 102 22:40
opens and it's to hold inmates of the department of corrections okay so
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Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified 22:45
i'm going to continue to just just just drill down on this because this just makes no sense and i'm going to see it just like i mean it it makes no sense that we're going to continue to pay private organizations more than we would pay our own county our own county jails to do the same job and uh you all you all may look at me like that but this it just makes no sense i don't know why we want to give our county jails and our county governments 32 dollars and we're willing to give a private organization 44 dollars can you can you even explain that
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Chair Unverified 23:23
I'll do my best, sir. Currently, we pay Bowie County, Texas, $36 a day to hold ADC inmates that we don't have space for in
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Speaker 102 23:37
the Division of Corrections. That contract is with Bowie County. It's a memorandum with Bowie County. The agreement that was signed and approved is with Warren and drew county i'm sorry bradley and drew counties
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Chair Unverified 23:53
the facility that is proposed to be built should it be built would not be holding county jail backup inmates from warren and drew counties it will be holding inmates that have already been sentenced from around the state to the department so it i understand your your question but it's not the same these people are not coming from those counties these are people that have come into
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Speaker 102 24:16
the department and are going to be shifted there to a facility to hold them when we don't have enough bed space to hold them in the division of correction so are they are so these
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Speaker 27 24:28
are different inmates I mean because my understanding is
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Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified 24:32
and I can give Plessy County Regional for example they are holding inmates that you all have processed is that not correct they are holding people
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Speaker 102 24:43
that have been convicted in Pulaski
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Chair Unverified 24:45
County presumably Pulaski County residents although I'm sure some of them were passing through until we have bed space for them Warren County and Drew County will be holding people that have already been processed into the division of correction that are from all over the state from all counties and and we just simply don't have enough bed space for they're building
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Speaker 102 25:11
this facility that will house them there, but they're not their residents. I mean, it may occasionally
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Chair Unverified 25:16
be somebody that's from those counties, but it's not the same thing as people coming from, whether it's Jefferson, Pulaski, whatever county. Generally speaking, those are residents of that county that have gotten into the criminal justice system,
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Speaker 102 25:31
and they're waiting for a bed to come to ADC.
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Chair Unverified 25:42
okay all right thank you yes sir thank you represent love senator stubblefield uh hang on senator bond you're going to need to hit your button again senator stubblefield you're recognized
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 25:53
thank you mr chairman jake uh there's been a number of counties that have passed sales taxes to build new jails including two in my district is that having any kind of an impact on the number of beds space that's available because most of those facilities take in a hundred have up to a hundred bed space positions is that not having any impact at all upon the number of beds that are available in the counties it does have an impact on the number of beds that
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Speaker 117 26:23
are available in the counties. How is it affecting the ADC? Other than taking pressure off the counties,
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Chair Unverified 26:33
it doesn't affect the ADC because the counties may be holding misdemeanors. They're holding pretrial detainees. Until someone has been convicted and that sentencing order has been received and processed by the Department of Correction, they're not on our backup to come to us. All right.
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Speaker 119 26:50
One more question, Mr. Chair. The medical contracts you referred
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 26:54
to under the professional fees are those contracts bid on is there a competitive bidding process yes
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Chair Unverified 27:02
sir there was a competitive bidding process that took place in 2013 the contract became effective january 1st
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Representative Dwight Tosh Unverified 27:08
of 2014 okay thank you mr. chair thank you
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 27:18
senator stubblefield mr. wootton are you on again Representative Wooten. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Explain again to me. I didn't comprehend, and I'm kind of slow being from a rural area, but what's the difference between 32 and 42? I mean, you're holding inmates. They're feeding them, caring for them. what why why the ten dollar difference well the the department of
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Speaker 129 27:47
correction is just one piece of
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Chair Unverified 27:50
the criminal justice system but the difference is what was contracted and agreed to the thirty dollars that is currently set was an increase that was passed in 2015 when Governor Hutchinson took office he's proposed to increase it again to 32 which is a two dollar increase that is separate and apart from a contract with two counties that agreed to obtain land and build a facility to hold state inmates that y'all passed the legislation that allowed for this to happen and drew and bradley county are the only counties that have done it thus far there's been other discussions excuse me but nobody else has done it and the contract amount that was presented was $44 a day that includes them holding them providing the care that the counties provide but they're also required to provide on-site medical anything that doesn't have to go off-site we will pay for the prescriptions and off-site care which is what we do for Bowie County inmates now but they're not from those counties. Bradley and Drew County did not have any obligation to build a 600-bed facility to house 500 inmates from the Division of Correction. They took it upon themselves to do this joint venture together, and the contracted rate is going to cover the medical, on-site medical care there. They are required to provide GED services to the inmates there. There's not a requirement that the counties do that but the counties theoretically are temporarily housing people that have been committed to the department that are just waiting on the bed they're going to be housing people that have already been processed through the department that we do want to get the programming and things that are provided within the department for inmates before they're released including that they get their ged and that is part of that contract price and they're providing transportation as part of that contract price back for example if they need to see a psychiatrist we didn't require them have a psychiatrist on site at that facility but they are required to bring them to one of our facilities and for them
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 30:11
to bear that transportation cost okay all right my other question i didn't understand the reference to the parole officers that you made what what what was comment or what was the recommendation
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Speaker 69 30:28
on additional you you were talking about
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Speaker 56 30:36
the appropriation community correction state you're talking about the operating expenses whereas a one-time payment in the previous fiscal year to add 30 additional probation parole off right so that that is the same 30 that
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 30:48
we had it in the session okay all right thank you mr. chairman and yes sir if I could
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Speaker 137 30:55
speak to that that's the startup cost new weapons training all those things in the first year that you have to do with a parole officer they have all been filled all those positions that were given to us were filled now we do have vacancies right now of 26. Hang on, hang on. Representative Wooten, you want to punch your
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Chair Unverified 31:21
button again? I'd already turned you off. Go ahead now. That's not what
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 31:33
we've been told in the personnel committee. And I'm sorry, and I may be confusing it, but for example, before you gave
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Speaker 137 31:40
us the 30 positions we had 27 vacancies so that's and now we have 20 25 today 26 we have filled all the positions but we have turnover and you know we we can get as close as we can but 22 to 25 is about the norm for vacancies with parole officers
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 32:01
at any given time that's the reason we're asking the question because of the fact that it's a continuing problem and I think it's 92 parolees per officer now. It's 91 today, yes sir. 91 today. Yes sir. And then the 60 is a recommendation nationally, right, nationally it's 60. Yes sir. So we need 30 more if we try to do that. But you can't, so how do you know you fill the 30 if you had 27 vacancies? Well, I'm
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Speaker 137 32:39
just referring to those position numbers. All of those position numbers have been filled that y'all gave us, but we have had other vacancies to replace, you know. But I did look back this morning that how many vacancies we had at the time when we were given the additional 30, and we had 27 at that time. So you had 27 vacancies.
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 33:03
Yes, sir. What, in your opinion, is going to solve that problem? Well, you know, we're trying to do
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Speaker 137 33:09
several things. What y'all did with what the governor proposed with the additional beds for the community correction centers is going to help because we have a lot of individuals, we have 199 offenders on the street waiting to go to SSP, and it's not best practice that you wait to impose that sanction. It should be immediate almost. So they're having to wait a period of time, and while they're waiting, that individual is still being supervised so that's 199 hopefully that'll come off come off yes sir
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Chair Unverified 33:39
representative can i arrange for him to talk to you later are you are you done that'll be fine thank you would you uh talk to him later sir thank you uh representative bond
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 33:54
senator bond sorry that's all right and representative wooten asked a bunch of my questions, and we got off into corrections in private prisons. I assume corrections is coming back, right? Yes. So I'll leave that alone. How many, and I know it's something we don't like to talk about, how many absconders, people that are in violation of their parole, do we have right now, if you know, or where we don't know where they are. They haven't reported in three months or
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Speaker 143 34:21
something. Yes, sir. Approximately about 9,000 total between probation and parole right
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 34:24
now at this time 9,000 yes okay and so the reason I bring that up is just kind of to follow up on representative Wooten this idea that we have to drive the the number of people that we're overseeing down is a real concern and sort of always like and it's like a lot of issues in the state if we don't stay focused on it I know everybody's trying I agree with you that the governor doing the beds is great and i think that's a great idea but kind of like a lot of things that we don't stay on top of the problem exists even though we've acted upon it whether that's teacher pay higher ed graduation rates all these things but that uh that's something that i want everybody to be aware of this problem's not solved with the addition of 30 parole officers we got to stay on top of it
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Representative Jeff Wardlaw Unverified 35:12
it's a real public safety issue thank you you. Okay.
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Chair Unverified 35:19
You done, Senator Bond? Senator Chesterfield, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 35:28
I need to know, you're talking, the governor spoke of a $35 a day payment to local jails, et cetera is that correct 32 he proposed raising the daily rate to the county just of 32
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Chair Unverified 35:42
dollars what are you what is the rate remind me of the rate
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 35:48
you're going to pay to the private jail we're
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Chair Unverified 35:51
currently paying 36 dollars a day to bowie county to hold adc inmates and the memorandum we entered with bradley and drew county is for 44 dollars a day why such a huge amount to a private
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 36:04
entity while our local jails are being swelled with state prisoners but we're only going to give them $32 what what what sense does that
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Chair Unverified 36:19
make senator chesterfield the the difference and i'm i don't believe that anything i say is going to convince you that this is the correct result probably not but go ahead but the difference is that for the counties that are holding adc and on a temporary basis awaiting a bed those are people from their community that they are holding the people that Bradley and Drew County will be holding in this facility are people that have been processed into the department and it will include the provision of medical services on site and GED instruction at the facility but it's not people from their community that they'll be holding it will be people that we send to them from the department that came from all over the state of Arkansas so it's cheaper to educate it's cheaper to educate folks
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 37:07
who are from outside of a vicinity and it's cheaper to house them if they don't live there as opposed to the cost of them being
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Speaker 168 37:18
there is there some scientific study that says
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Chair Unverified 37:22
we're doing it no ma'am and that's not what I intended to say it is simply saying that we are part of the criminal justice system just like the counties are and the counties that are holding someone awaiting a bed or holding them on a temporary basis for them to be processed into the department the people that will be going to this facility should it be built are going to be people that the division of correction determines to send there if the backup for community corrections continues to grow which it has grown because of legislation that y'all passed act 423 which is great it kept people from coming into the adc if you look at then it may be that we send people that are sentenced to community correction there instead of people that are sentenced to the department of correction we'll have flexibility in how we use those 500 beds but those 500 beds are being built to alleviate bed space throughout the criminal justice system but it will not be there won't be 500 people from Bradley and Drew County sitting there those will be people that we send to their out of the state system well thank
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 38:36
you for trying I appreciate it. Thank you.
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Chair Unverified 38:39
Thank you, Senator Chesterfield. Representative Boyd. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Speaker 174 38:48
So this is for Ms. Kelly or whomever can answer it. I'm trying to understand and provide some clarity around who is, how we're sharing the health care risk burden. So you've touched on it at the Bradley County Top Facility where you said there's on-site care, I believe. So the question is really then, if you're in, say, Pulaski County, is Pulaski County on the hook if you happen to have a heart attack while you're a state prisoner there, or does the state pick up the tab for that major medical event? And then are county jails on the hook for any on-site care that they might provide say they provide psychiatric services on site in their their jail or is the state reimbursing so I just I'm trying to understand the levelized playing field and how we're sharing the risk for those needs across the state thank you
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Chair Unverified 39:45
yes sir if someone is in a county jail if that county jail has medical services there then they do provide those services but they send bills if that person has been committed and is simply waiting on a bed then they send any bills they get like pharmacy bills or whatever to the division of correction to pay if someone were to have a heart attack for example on a weekly basis we fast track people into the department so if a county has someone that they can't handle for because they're so disruptive or they've got mental health issues or they've got a serious medical issue then we fast track them in ahead of everybody that's waiting on the list to come in and we do that that's in our monthly board report the number of requests we get and the number of people that we fast track in for either medical or mental health reasons but once we if someone were to have a heart attack and they're waiting to come to us let's say they get carried to uams today we would track them on paper we would go ahead and make the transfer on paper to adc and we would send our officers to sit with them while they're in the hospital when they're released they would come to adc they wouldn't go
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Speaker 175 40:55
back to that county. Thank you. I hope
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Speaker 1 41:05
that answers your question. You're done, Representative Boyd. Representative
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Representative Rick Beck Unverified 41:14
Beck. Thanks, Commissioner Chair. The question I had was, I understand the $44 for the regional at Brad. So that would be someone, I'm not going to go back, you explain that very well. If that individual were not sent to that regional area and were actually sent directly into an existing facility, what would the cost per day be in that facility? I
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Speaker 122 41:37
think our daily cost is around $67 a day. So actually
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Representative Rick Beck Unverified 41:42
the $44 is below what we're actually paying per day for the same services. In the Division of Correction, that is correct.
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Speaker 134 41:50
Thank you. Good question Representative Beck, Representative Leitman. Thank you,
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Representative Jack Ladyman Unverified 41:56
Mr. Chair, and I apologize for, I'm over
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Speaker 129 41:59
here. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, I'm deaf in one ear, so I have a
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Representative Jack Ladyman Unverified 42:04
hard time telling where the voices are coming from. I hate to ask the same question again, but I'm a little confused. I thought I had this figured out, but from the questioning, and you're trying to answer these different questions, but the way I understand, you tell me if I'm correct on this, we're basically talking about two groups of people here you have people in the county jail who have been convicted but there's no bed so they're in that group and they're being held there that's one community and that that is being paid at $30 or $32 $30 a day right so that's one group that county jail is only equipped for short-term prisoners they only can provide certain activities certain things so that group it costs 32 dollars to do that then once they are transferred into the prison the state prison system that's a different facility different things are provided such as medical care and some other things so there's a lot more involved there it's a different facility the costs are higher yes sir so at that point that's a different community totally so once they cross into that threshold then it is 36 dollars or forty four dollars depending on which facility they're in uh am i correct i mean we're talking apples and oranges here it's not private versus public it's actually what is provided in these
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Speaker 185 43:28
two groups is that correct do i confuse you
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Chair Unverified 43:33
there i'm sorry a little bit so in the county jails each county jail operates at a different level and they you know depending on whether it's a new jail and they have new employees that are making the bottom rate, entry-level rate, or they've been there for a long time and they have seasoned staff that maybe are making $10,000 or $20,000 more, I don't know, their rate per day is going to be different. And it is different across the state. Once they come into the, if they come into the division of correction, then the rate is about $67 a day. State employees are generally speaking paid better than county employees not always but generally speaking and they have the retirement benefits and the medical and all that so it increases the cost for the employees the facilities are generally more secure we have designated areas to deal with people that have mental health issues and medical issues we actually operate a hospital in malvern at our washita unit so our costs are higher than a county jail cost once we've gotten these people in when we didn't have enough beds and we were at a critical level in 2015 the governor instructed me to find beds and i did in bowie county they were willing to take i think they started out taking 280 of our inmates and so what we did was pick inmates that had already completed whatever programming they were going to get in the department but we're awaiting on an approved parole plan and that's who we sent to Bowie County first. We've increased the capacity down there I believe it's $336 today and we're paying them $36 a day. They have not increased the rate since 2015 from that $36 a day but starting anew in Bradley and Drew County they asked for and we did agree to the $44 dollars a day they did agree to add outdoor rec areas covered areas for the inmates because it's different from being in a county jail where you're only going to be there a short time if you've been committed to the department you're probably going to spend longer there they're adding a gym a hobby craft area things that may not be available at a county jail i'm not saying they're not because every jail is different but there's no requirement we don't tell the county jails what they have to provide for inmates that are on our backup but we will be telling bradley and drew
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Speaker 102 46:07
county what they have to have by contract for us
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Representative Jack Ladyman Unverified 46:11
to pay them that rate but without providing all the details and specific services is it fair to say that it it costs more to house long-term prisoners in the state system than it does to house short-term prisoners in the county
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Speaker 189 46:26
Is that correct? Yes, sir. I do
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Chair Unverified 46:32
believe that is correct. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Leighman. Representative Richmond, you
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond Unverified 46:38
still alike over there? Just barely, Mr. Chair. Thank you. I'm on your far right. I want to go back to special revenue and get a little more clarification about this. As I understand it, special revenue is generated by fees that are paid for, you know, supervision fees whatever it might be and that's paid by the inmates is that
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Speaker 191 46:57
correct it's paid by the parolees and probationers yes
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond Unverified 47:00
sir okay and so those parolees I mean where do they get their revenue to pay these fees these supervision fees that most of them have jobs or something of that nature that they can work at that
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Speaker 137 47:15
is one of our purposes to try to get them employed but they do usually pay it from proceeds from their jobs yes okay last question what
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond Unverified 47:23
is special revenue what services does that provide it provides for drug
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Speaker 81 47:30
testing it provides for GPS it provides for transitional housing for offenders
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Speaker 137 47:34
getting out that don't have a place to go staff and drug courts it provides for some positions that we have okay thank you that's very helpful
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond Unverified 47:48
thank you mr. chair thank you representative Richmond representative Lundstrom I think
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Chair Unverified 47:54
I just turned you off you want to turn it back on hit the button again Lundstrom punch a button again yellow button I was hoping you weren't going to figure it out.
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 48:21
There are a lot of people that feel that way. You're recognized. All right. Just a quick question on this sheet at the bottom that says funding sources. At the very bottom on page 17, it says excess revenue. For 2018 to 2019. Are you looking at
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Speaker 205 48:46
the excess appropriation line? Yes Yeah, that
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Speaker 94 48:51
would so the amount in parentheses for That would show excess funding For 18 and 19 and then going forward those funds have been accounted for Going into the agency and legislative recommendation which would show that excess appropriation. Okay,
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 49:06
so that's eight million and change I'm seeing three million. All right three million in 2019. It was eight million in 2018. Yeah, 18 and 19. Yes, ma'am. Okay, so given that we've got some excess funding Taking what Senator Bond was talking about with needed the need for parole officers Could we pay them more and keep them longer so we didn't have the turnover you were talking about there were we needed 27 and then
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Speaker 94 49:36
another 30 so the 18 19 line would show that and if you go to the top of that box on that funding sources line you can see there's a fund balance that in 18 and 19 was at that 8.6 million but as we move forward into the 2021 budget it has fallen to 3.3 million in in the amount that we plan to expend and so that excess funding issue that was out there in 18 and 19 is we anticipate being there in the coming fiscal
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 50:06
year okay going up follow-up question I'm going up it says community correction programs 8 million at the 2019 2020 budget under community Corrections yes in the big red book this monster right here under community Corrections it shows that we actually only spent year-over-year from 2008 to 2017 we only spent about 4 million and
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Chair Unverified 50:43
change in that column. The
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 50:45
big red book on page 163 we've never actually spent
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Speaker 142 50:50
the full $8 million. He doesn't have a copy. We've got Kevin looking at
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 50:57
it. This this thing that actually gives you the year-over-year. Sure I
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Speaker 94 51:00
understand what she's asking I think. Okay. Is the question why are we appropriating it at $8 million? Uh-huh but we've never
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Chair Unverified 51:15
actually spent it. I'm sorry and I don't I've never seen the Red Book, but if that is for residents in ACC centers, ACC used to have empty beds in their centers, but when y'all passed Act 423, that quickly filled up those beds, and that's why they have a waiting list as well, because the passage of that law, which did divert people from ADC into ACC, but it allowed for sanctions, and they did have some empty beds, and if that's what it's for, it's probably the difference in
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Speaker 102 51:46
having all of those beds full plus the additional 62 plus beds that we have opened already.
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 51:52
Okay. I just want to make sure if we're appropriating $8 million and we've not ever spent it or needed it, if we're actually going to use this or it's just there for where is it going to go. Representative
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Chair Unverified 52:05
Lundstrom, I think that's just some excess appropriation. and yes
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Speaker 137 52:10
ma'am the one thing i would add to that with 423 it also extended the period of time a person the sentence that they could be sentenced to a community correction center to six years up from three and that filled up beds as well so those beds are are full that's why we the governor has asked for the additional beds as well okay
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Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified 52:30
um if i could have one more follow-up One more. All right. Senator Bond made a real good point on the 9,000 that we can't account for. Is there a way to separate the parolees out for the ones that are in good standing, that are actually checking in, and then the ones that have actually ghosted on us so that the public can know when you're doing a job application or whatever that this is a parolee that's not in good standing?
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Speaker 137 52:55
We actually do have warrants for all of those individuals, and we do have a specialized team that is constantly looking for them. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Lindstrom. Senator
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Representative Dwight Tosh Unverified 53:07
Bond, are you back? You're recognized. And all
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 53:14
I have is a request. I think in the past you could send to us the absconders broken down by risk. You know, there's some that are higher risk than the others. Could you email that to the members of the committee to show where these absconders fall absolutely yes if you'll send
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Speaker 227 53:31
it to staff they'll send it out
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Speaker 173 53:33
okay that all represent bond represent boyd you're back thank you mr chair
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Speaker 174 53:43
uh i'm still trying to write my mind around this cost per day and so you know so in the county where i'm from it costs around 60 a day or that's what's reported is about 60 a day so how is it that it costs 60 a day one place and another place can do it for $44 a day and then another place can even do it for $36. Well, no, no, no. In Texas, they're doing it for $36 a day. I mean, the root of my question is, would it be less expensive for the state to actually help the counties develop efficiencies in their county jails rather than keep going up indefinitely on the daily rate? your
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Chair Unverified 54:30
question is whether the state can help the county jails be more
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Speaker 174 54:35
efficient well well there's such a discrepancy between 60 or even if it's 55 a day i mean that's a big discrepancy between what it costs or it's reported to cost versus somebody's willing to take prisoners for 44 a day and somebody else is willing to take them for 36 a day and while i want it to be fair to my county i also want to be a good steward of the state's tax dollars and i'm trying to understand is it really the right thing to do to keep working on increasing the daily rate or would it be less expensive for us to really go help the county jails develop efficiencies that put them more in line with 36 or 44 dollars per day i guess is my question or can they just get there because they're just too small i mean
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Speaker 102 55:23
i'm just trying to understand right well volume does drive down the cost per day um what there is a state office of criminal detention facility review and they it's there are only two people in that office in that agency um that was added to our department as part of transformation they have committees that go out all around the state but a lot of it depends on your floor plan whether you have an old jail or whether you built something new that has line of sight part of the 36 a day in Bowie County unfortunately is because they don't have a chow hall for the inmates to go to so they're in their barracks and they eat in their barracks they shower in there that's where their day room is it's one of the reasons why I'm in favor of this jail that's being built is because it's going to have a separate chow hall it's going to have a separate gymnasium it's going to be a better quality of life for these people but that all factors into the cost and part of what they tell me the reason they're going to be able to operate it at 44 a day is because they intend to hire at a lower rate of pay than what the state pays and they think that they will be able to hire people that have retired from the department basically that people will have worked their 30 years or 28 years retired and that they'll go to work
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Speaker 230 56:49
for this facility at a lower rate which will lower their rate daily rate
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Speaker 173 56:54
one follow-up mr chair go right ahead so so i heard you correctly
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Speaker 174 57:00
that some of the discrepancy is a local choice to not update facilities to make them more efficient i'm saying that's a possibility
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Speaker 186 57:08
i i can't tell you that because i haven't been to all the jails i'm just saying i i know there are some jails that are small
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Speaker 102 57:16
and on a small scale you can't lower your rate because you still have to have somebody whether they're watching two people or watching 50 people somebody has to be there around the clock so if you have them doing a 12-hour shift one post is
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Chair Unverified 57:30
going to be five people because of the hours that they work during the week and having a relief factor If you're dividing a salary for five people by two people that you're watching, then your daily rate is going to be outrageous, whereas if that same one post is watching 50 people, which is allowed under jail standards, a barracks of 50, then their rate is going to be less. So it depends, and a lot of counties, I think, have, you know, the jails that they have, they've had for a long time, but it
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Speaker 102 58:01
also depends on how you build a new one. do you build it for maximum efficiency when you talk about finance and you're you've got 50 people in there and you have a line of sight for safety purposes and there's just a lot of things that go into it but I'm
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Chair Unverified 58:17
in no way saying that the counties are not being efficient I do not that's
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Speaker 102 58:23
not my role I do know that their rates vary and I think it varies based on the tenure of their staff the size of their facility, all of that comes into play.
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Chair Unverified 58:36
Are you done, Representative Boyd? Thank you. Representative Rye, I kept
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 58:50
thinking you'd give up. One short question, please. Johnny Gall? Oh, I hate that. Who's
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Chair Unverified 59:01
seat 12? you're recognized or a quick question
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Speaker 234 59:04
please thank you Mr. Chair Ms. Kelly this is kind of being more to a representative boy than some of the cost of that goes to the county jails versus ADC each jail is like she said is operated a little different we've got jail standards that sets the criteria what we have to have for them at the jail ADC has a lot more what they have to do and the space that they've got to do it in so each county is a different cost the pay rate the logistics of where it's at for the vendors and things so you can drive your costs down but each one of them is going to be different and the bigger issue I see on the backup of this is recidivism this is something that we're going to have to get a handle on as these inmates it's been in four or five times i've handled uh inmates for sebastian pulaski and our own county when i was operating it and we would see them come in again and again and again and again and it's just revolving and it causes uh acc lots of problems in there because the employees get frustrated the most of them i hope you don't the exit strategy or exit uh check see why they were leaving and what the problem was but a lot of times they're just frustrated with the whole system in general and it does get anyhow do you agree yes sir thank you thank you representatives members I have no don't have any more questions am I
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Chair Unverified 1:00:41
ready for a motion I have a motion I have a motion in a second any
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:00:49
discussion on the motion all those in favor aye opposed guys have it that was exact right sorry Wendy if you'll stay there Josh I'm gonna let Wendy Wendy do you want to give your talk now or do you rather wait I can do it now that's I just think it might be more relevant before we could go on through all this if you want and it's not real long I promise well
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Speaker 124 1:01:15
we were counting on that Okay. So today we're here on the budget that was approved in the 2019 session. There are no changes
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Chair Unverified 1:01:20
in here, including the suggestions made by the governor yesterday. But I'm thankful to have this opportunity to share with you some of the successes that the professional staff in our department have made happen. They've been busy talking, sharing ideas, and learning from each other. By consolidating areas into shared services and having strong administrators, each area has found efficiencies and improved service to the agencies within our department. Consolidating procurement has allowed for savings on drug testing supplies. A consolidated research and planning department is producing a single recidivism report which dives into additional areas including the fact that there is a higher recidivism rate for members of gangs. Human resources consolidation has led to staff working together as a team and improved not only human resources services, but also improved the compliance with OPM guidelines throughout the department. Our improved IT service has resulted from consolidations of that area, and we continue to find ways to assist each other. For example, the ACC Deputy Director Jimmy Banks has assumed responsibility for ADC's work release centers. Those are located in Texarkana, Luxora, Springdale, and Benton. Mr. Banks was already supervising ACC centers in Texarkana, Osceola, Fayetteville, Little Rock, and Malvern, so it prevented having someone from each division driving to those corners of the state. He was charged with finding efficiencies while working with staff in those centers. One that was located found was when the ADC center supervisor in Texarkana was promoted at another facility. We didn't backfill that position. The ACC deputy warden that was located in the same building, the former St. Michael's Hospital in Texarkana, assumed the administrative duties for the ADC work release. So it resulted in a savings of that position. ADC's work release program is in that building, and ACC's drug and alcohol treatment center is in that same building. Then the staff in Luxor and Osceola, he's working to have them share duties, administrative duties as well, including a business manager. The Division of Corrections PREA coordinator, Prison Rape Elimination Act, will soon serve as the PREA coordinator for the ACC six facilities as well which will ensure complete reporting investigations and referrals by our department. Senator Bond internal affairs for ADC is going to move to shared services and that will allow them to pick up the investigations that ACC was doing and then all of ACC's special team will be able to focus on absconders and offenders in the community and they won't be dealing with any internal investigations that happen in the centers. Those will come over into the shared services area. By working together and sharing workloads between divisions, we've made some other things happen. For example, the reduced revocations at the parole board has allowed the parole board gave permission for those three attorneys that are hearing officers to help with the sex offender assessment appeals that are done by ADC. We had one attorney in ADC that was doing that, and the volume is just terrific, so the people at the parole board are helping out with that. The ADC research assistant was able to help the Sentencing Commission attorneys with data entry, which means that the two attorneys at the Sentencing Commission have been able to do a lot more training following transformation throughout the state. Consolidating the Sentencing Commission and the Criminal Detention Review staff in one location has occurred and that allowed the one admin support person for criminal detention to serve in that role for both agencies so we didn't have to hire someone at the sentencing commission for that. ADC had closed its mod unit. It was closed the first part of this year due to staffing shortages. It has since reopened but because we had it closed for six months we were able to use that money to fund the medical contract for the 50 beds we opened in Texarkana for for ACC those the governor talked about yesterday are already opened and we're asking for continued funding but we funded the medical contract for those out of ADC's savings from having the mod unit temporarily closed we're working on creating a department pool vehicle for example if someone's in Newport and they work for the Division of Correction and there's not a vehicle available for them to drive to a meeting in Little Rock, they have to turn in a TR, well, Community Correction might have a pool vehicle available. So we're working to get that all lined out where we have one pool list for the whole department and they can use those and reduce TRs that are turned in. We've set goals, visions for the department, resulting in a focus number one on people and then on efficiency and transparency. The Criminal Detention Review Facility Office has hosted a jail resource fair and they're hosting their second one tomorrow and they were able to do that by working with the re-entry staff from ADC and ACC. Riverside VoTech has expanded their partnership with ASU Newport and we are currently started two weeks ago taking women from the McPherson unit to their campus for welding classes and the women actually started welding the second day of that program. and we have plans to further expand our partnership with ASU. So I appreciate your consideration of the additional community correction beds in West Memphis and Texarkana that was discussed yesterday. This will provide more timely treatment and sanctions to the offenders, and I promise that we are all committed to continuing to dialogue with each other to find more efficiencies and ways to improve public safety in this state. Thank you for allowing me to speak for a few minutes. Secretary Kelly I
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Representative Lane Jean Chair Unverified 1:07:27
think we've got a question from Representative Beck you recognize thank you Mr. Chair
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Representative Rick Beck Unverified 1:07:34
it's great to hear all the stuff that's going on with transformation it looks like you know just kind of maybe reading between the lines a little bit I hear the efficiencies gained by multiple tasks so my question is pretty simple do you feel like with transfer Are you more responsive than you were before? Are you adding more programs? Or are you saving state? Obviously, you're saving the state money, even if you're reinvesting it in other programs. I'm curious as to exactly what you feel like has been the big push for transformation. Has it been efficiencies, in other words, providing better services to your customers, or has it been more of a case where we've saved the taxpayers dollars i think it's been all of those
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Chair Unverified 1:08:26
things i mean when we were able to open the beds at texarcana for example by using resources from both divisions that's 50 people that are not backed up in the county jail and those beds turn over quickly within the community corrections center but the dialogue has been terrific and the sentencing commission for example their attorneys have provided training not only across the state but also to our staff to community correction staff on how to enter those orders efficiently the goal is to have everything entered correctly into our offender management system which the parole board community corrections and the division of correction already share and let the sentencing commission pull reports out of that system so they're not hand entering data from all of the counties we're working on an interface with context that with AOC so that we can get information from them but the biggest thing that has come from all of this is just the improved communication the working together we meet together we work together is we I am so blessed to have the people that I do Dexter Payne and Jerry Bradshaw Lindsay Wallace Sterling Pennix John Feltz I mean it has truly been a great thing. VOTEC is we're making improvements there on the skills and the certifications that the inmates will be able to get. We've come a long way since July 1st. Everybody is working hard and I don't see a downside to what we've done. I just want to
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Representative Rick Beck Unverified 1:09:59
thank you for your efforts there. We'll be looking forward to seeing your improvements and hopefully both in savings and results as far as your customers are concerned. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Bond, you're recognized. Well, first, I think sometimes
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 1:10:19
we never say thank you to our Department of Corrections. It's a very difficult job, and our correctional officers, it's incredibly difficult work, so thank you. In the past, and you may not be on top of this today, but we've had issues keeping our psychologists, psychiatrists, kind of our mental health providers hired up within the Department of Correction. How are we doing on that now I know there had been a bunch of openings due to rate of pay
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Chair Unverified 1:10:44
issues the psychiatrist we actually ended up contracting with our medical provider for those because we couldn't pay the salary to maintain psychiatrist we did that several years ago the psychologist we've had a couple of new ones join us so that's an improvement because we were down to two so it continues to be
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Speaker 117 1:10:58
a struggle do you know how many openings we have for psychologists right now on the Department of Corrections. We have
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Speaker 240 1:11:04
a population of about 17,000, so. Right, and I'm sorry, I don't know that off the top of my head, I can
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Chair Unverified 1:11:12
look when I get a chance to go back to my seat and tell you that. Was it something just on hiring him, it's a pay level issue? It is, and then the federal government opened several years ago the Social Security Disability Review Office here in Little Rock, and we lost several psychologists just to that office. They went to work for the federal government. So, I mean, I can remember their names even, and they were fantastic and doing a great job for us, but they left for what I consider to be an easier job that paid more. Imagine that. Well, mental health issues
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 1:11:48
are huge in corrections, I know. So if we wanted to try and address that, it would be somehow increasing the level of pay for those positions so you can competitively hire them? Yes, sir. All right. On drug treatment specialists, same thing. I know we were doing a better job of filling those positions like addiction people that weren't licensed as psychiatrists or psychologists, or do we still have a bunch of openings? No,
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Chair Unverified 1:12:12
sir, we don't have a lot of openings in drug treatment. Those
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 1:12:15
are fairly easy to fill. All right. Last question. I get calls periodically from corrections officers' families about overtime payment and whether they're being paid timely if they work overtime or if they're called in on holidays. Are we up to date on our overtime payment to our workers? I may ask Stacia Linderman to come
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Chair Unverified 1:12:31
up here to make sure I don't misspeak, But, yes, sir, I know at one time we were completely current. I don't think we're current at this time. Stacey, can you come up here so I don't say the wrong thing about holiday and overtime pay? You're done, Senator Bond.
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Speaker 243 1:12:51
Well, just to follow up, just to hear that answer, yes,
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Speaker 248 1:13:03
sir. Okay. Good morning. I'm Stacey Linderman. i'm the hr administrator yes we are current uh they received their payout two pay periods ago we generally try to pay the overtime every quarter we bank it and then we do uh full payouts of the overtime the gap time is paid every pay period but the overtime is banked right uh why is the overtime banked due to funding it's it takes so you know everything's behind the overtime is worked and then it stays behind to a pay period because of the way they work so generally three months we pay it out sometimes due to funding or just whenever they tell us that we need to pay it but we do pay it quarters by the quarter seems like
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Senator Will Bond Unverified 1:13:50
we should pay these folks who are doing this tough jobs when they work the overtime timely I know it's a funding issue also last request Mr. Chairman could you shoot us a increase in psychologist pay recommendation to where we might could so the legislature could know how much we might need to raise those positions so that you could hire them and the number of openings we currently have there thank
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Chair Unverified 1:14:19
you and if I can Senator Bond I just want to say i appreciate you talking about the job that the correctional officers do and they actually started a jury trial today in jefferson county against an inmate that assaulted one of our officers that was permanently disabled by that assault you've got some
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Representative Lane Jean Chair Unverified 1:14:38
more questions so don't get don't get up yet no stay
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Representative Douglas House Unverified 1:14:45
representative house you recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Madam Secretary. I echo Senator Bond's compliments, and I'm sure I can speak for everybody in this room. We do appreciate the hard job that you do, and you do it well. When you don't see the Department of Corrections in the newspaper, we know things are going pretty good. The Criminal Detention Committee, is anybody from that subdivision in the with us today? I don't think Sterling's here today. Would one of y'all just ask him to give me
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Speaker 256 1:15:23
a call when he has chance? It's
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:15:28
nothing urgent. Yes, sir. We sure will. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator Flowers, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Wendy, Good morning. Good morning. Which direction? Sorry. Over here. I wanted to know about something I had visited with Director Ray Hobbs about years ago, working out some type of memorandum of understanding with Social Security Disability Office in terms of exiting inmates who we see are coming back into the system time and time again, in terms of disabilities, pre-screening for them before they exited ADC or ACC, to get them considered for disability and perhaps medication and services that could stem the tide of the return
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Speaker 117 1:16:26
to prison. Yes, ma'am. Do we have anything like that going? We do
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Chair Unverified 1:16:32
have a memorandum with the Social Security Administration. If I can talk to you about that later, I'd like to get Ann Fragane with me because she's the one that directly deals with it,
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Speaker 124 1:16:40
to make sure I don't misspeak on that. do have an agreement with them at the present time do you see that work
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:16:49
it out for good I mean is she affecting many of your your customers I'm not involved
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Chair Unverified 1:16:57
with that on a even a monthly basis which is the reason I'd like to defer the conversation to her if I can okay
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Speaker 256 1:17:05
thank you thank you mr. chair thank you Senator Ballinger you're recognized. Thank
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Speaker 266 1:17:13
you Mr. Chair. Coming back to the issue of the overtime and and we're aware that it used to be way worse than it is and has been lately but what I'm what I'm missing here is you know an explanation of why we aren't doing it. I mean every other place in the world pays it with that pay period right and so if it's a situation where where we need to have enough money you know set back to be able to make sure that we cover it each pay period that we need to figure out how to do that but but either way i mean what i want to hear is that there's a plan to do that just like everybody else who gets paid in you know gets paid with that pay period we can develop a plan
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Speaker 117 1:17:53
to do it with the pay period with with each pay
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Speaker 124 1:17:57
period we don't do that currently and we have had to come back and ask for supplemental funding to meet our
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Chair Unverified 1:18:03
overtime obligations when our vacancy rates get high at a particular area for example they were extremely high at the Varner unit that was one reason why the mod unit was closed temporarily we shifted that staff over to Varner but we did incur a lot of overtime overtime is currently down at the Varner unit but then it is at other places so but we don't always have the funding
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Speaker 124 1:18:25
to pay it at that particular pay period when it's earned but we can work on coming up with the plan sir and
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Speaker 266 1:18:33
to me it just seems like that that seems fairly elementary or we're dealing with people that we we probably don't pay enough because we don't have the money to pay them enough right you know one of the things you can do to help you know increase morale and maybe slow down turnover just a little bit is that you know when they go work a lot of overtime they're away from their family they're spending all their time out there then they can have a little bit of more money take their family out to eat whatever you know what i mean that's that's the way it works with working class in general and I just to me it seems like that that's kind of elementary that that we should not leave this this this session the fiscal session without a plan to make that never happen again if it's at all possible right you know we don't do that with other state employees I mean when they work overtime if they work overtime they get paid for it and I don't know why we don't I mean I let me come back and say I understand this is way better than it was right so i'm glad that we're not as far behind as we once were but the truth is we shouldn't ever be behind i mean would you agree with that that's all
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Chair Unverified 1:19:35
i just want to make sure that we're i i do agree that if they work they should be paid for it and um if we can pay it each pay period instead of quarterly i think that would be a great thing and we will look into that and get back with you is there
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Speaker 117 1:19:50
a reason why we can't do that other than not having the funding we do we we used all of our overtime funding for the year during the first quarter okay so if we had an
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Speaker 266 1:19:59
account set up I mean because it's not going to cost us any more money right if we had an account set up so that you could float that I mean we need to figure out what that number is but it's not going to be that much if we had an account that we'd set up so you could float that then it's not going to cost us any more money it's just a matter
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Speaker 273 1:20:27
of time right I will get with the FNA sir okay thank you we're budget 1.5 million a year for the I'm Mark Cash and I'm with Department of Corrections go ahead Mr. Cash we're budget 1.5 for a year and and normally we have to our overtime does run over that and a lot of it that is due to the reason we don't pay on a week bi-weekly basis is all that overtime is hand keyed in there by HR it's it's we don't have a some kind of electronic Stacey runoff but we don't have some kind of electronic processing on that and as we go through the year we we're gonna be about three million dollars this year so it's running high and we'll have to find some extra money to pay for that so and last year was out of work release. I probably confused you, but I didn't make any sense. It's a processing thing about the bi-weekly payments because we hand-key all that, and certainly you got to verify that too. We don't have the equipment to do it on a bi-weekly basis. I guess that the
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Speaker 266 1:21:33
problem that I have is is it's clear we've got a real real problem right I mean where we are I think not taking care of our state employees like we should be taking care of our state employees it is something that we handle everywhere else right so I don't understand why we can't just fix that and you know if it does cost a little bit of money it's this is going to be one area where we can spend I think a really small amount
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Speaker 269 1:21:58
of money and get a bunch of return on it you know it costs a little bit of money to do that then let's get that done yes sir i agree we'll come up with plan
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Speaker 272 1:22:04
action on that yeah senator ballinger you done i'm done thank you senator stubblefield
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Speaker 277 1:22:31
all right so push the green button one time and let go like thank you mr.
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:22:37
chairman secretary Kelly could you just elaborate real briefly on the on the farming operations and financial aspect of it yes
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Chair Unverified 1:22:47
sir I can also have Davey Faribault here with me today, the farm administrator, but the farming operation is going fairly well. We did close the hog operation. If the weather stays well I
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Speaker 117 1:22:59
think we'll we'll be okay but if I could get Mr. Faribault up here. Mr.
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Chair Unverified 1:23:07
Faribault, introduce yourself and you're recognized. Davey Faribault, farm administrator. Mr. Faribault, did
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:23:15
the prison purchase any cattle? No, sir, we haven't purchased. Nobody's buying any cattle? No,
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Speaker 281 1:23:23
sir, we haven't purchased any. Farming operations operating in the black? We're really close to the black. We're the same struggles that every farmer in Arkansas are right now. We're trying to reduce expenses in the times when we don't have good market prices, But we're running as lean as we can run right now. Cleaned
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Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified 1:23:44
up the dairy operation. It's cleaned up the somatic cells, bacteria counts. Yes, sir. We
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Speaker 281 1:23:48
caught a lot of cattle out down there. We're milking less numbers, but our somatic cell count is now running 200 or less. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's all I want to know.
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Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified 1:24:10
Thanks, Senator. Senator Chesterfield. Thank you, Mr. Chair. director Wendy would you agree that reading statements extends your time before the committee yes ma'am okay
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Speaker 21 1:24:22
thank you very much thank you so
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Chair Unverified 1:24:28
but no are you have your are you
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Speaker 64 1:24:38
lit up yellow button is she in 20 okay you're
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Speaker 290 1:24:46
recognized miss Wendy quick question I know you mentioned that to pay some of the overage for overtime it was coming from the work release program can y'all give me information on how much we're taking from the work release program to actually cover the overages for staff for overtime yes ma'am okay thank you and when do you
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Chair Unverified 1:25:06
have a request from a member to if we could have a number of what it takes to pay all the overtime how much more money it would take to pay the overtime in a timely manner in other words stay current on it yes sir all All right. If you'll send it
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Speaker 148 1:25:27
to staff, they'll send it out. All right. Representative Wooten, are you lit up again? Mr.
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 1:25:39
Chairman, I am here again. You're recognized. Thank you. You may not can answer this. It may be Mr. Bradshaw. He mentioned that we've got 9,000 scoundlers that are out there, and we charge $35, is it a week, a day, a $35 fee for the parolee? Do you know what the balance is, the accounts receivable for all those people? How much is owed? I do not, sir. I'd have
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Speaker 143 1:26:10
to look that up. I think Senator Bond, it was, I asked for a breakdown. Right. I will send that to you as well as we have two
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Speaker 137 1:26:19
different levels of absconder. We have what we call an evader. That's someone gone less than six months. And we have an absconder. That's someone six months or more. And I'll break down the risk
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Speaker 81 1:26:30
levels for those, and I could possibly get that information as well on monies owed from those individuals.
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 1:26:36
Can you give a dollar amount that's owed? Yes, sir. I could. Okay, very good. Secretary Kettle, I've got one more question, Mr. Chairman. the contraband issue has not been brought up today yes sir I can see that's a major I know you're dealing with a major problem there and does that does that play into the turnover rate that you have relative to those correction officers being involved with that contraband movement can you share with us where you are on getting that under control down there yes sir well in general terms I can contraband continues
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Chair Unverified 1:27:27
to be an issue there are occasions when a staff person is found to be involved in it and they're terminated but there are it's a bigger issue in that the facilities are less safe when we have contraband in there, and I think that leads to turnover of good staff. You know, they don't want to have their life in danger every day, and contraband does that. It's part of it. We've been working, I've been in conversations with Greg Parrish with the State Public Defender Office, because one of the ways that contraband is coming in now, we changed our correspondence policy in 2017 so that when mail comes in for the inmates, If it's general correspondence, we're copying it and giving them the copies. We're not giving them the actual paper because it was being soaked in drugs on occasion. That reduced our K-2 deaths dramatically when we did that. But now that they can't send it in that way, we're getting fake legal mail that comes in, which we're not allowed to read. We open it in front of the inmate. But contraband is coming in that way now, so we've been in talks with him to see if we can come up with some way that we can control that issue as well.
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Speaker 102 1:28:43
but it is something that we
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Representative Jim Wooten Unverified 1:28:47
work on daily it's it's a major problem it has been for ever yes sir but it's so more i guess it's more pronounced today with the drug involvement and the dangers that that presents for your your staff yes sir okay thank you mr chairman Thank you, Representative
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Speaker 134 1:29:07
Wheaton. All right, that's all the questions.
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Chair Unverified 1:29:14
Does that mean Josh's turn? Yes, sir. Josh, you're
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Speaker 67 1:29:24
up. All right. Maybe I wouldn't go too far. Our next presentation will be on
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Speaker 69 1:29:31
the Division of Correction, which starts on page 25. Looking at the Division Appropriations Summary, you will notice that the Division
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Speaker 56 1:29:37
of Correction has 11 total appropriations five of which have changes the appropriations total out to 461.7 million which is an increase of 2.3 million over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount I will now go through each appropriation line item and further discuss the line item changes on page 27 you'll see our county jail reimbursement currently pays county jails $30 per day the The legislative recommendation of fiscal year 21 has a recommendation of $17.4 million. This matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. There aren't any changes. On to page 29, you'll see the work release cash, which the funding source is cash in treasury. Work release is a cash funded appropriation supported by inmates who participate in the work release program. The legislative recommendation of $8 million matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. There aren't any changes. Our next appropriation line item on page 31 is the ADC Sex Offender Assessment. The funding source is the ADC Sex Offender Assessment Fund. Funds for this appropriation are derived from collections by the Arkansas Crime Information Center of a $250 fee from each individual who is required by law to register. The fiscal year 21 request is for $25,000, which matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. There aren't any changes. On our next appropriation line item on page 33, you will notice there's the fire station treasury cash. This appropriation provides for the support of the fire station. The fiscal year 21 request of 25,000 matches the fiscal year 20 authorized. On page 31, we have the appropriation inmate care and custody. Funding for inmate care and custody is primarily from general revenues. The use of cash and special revenue income for inmate care and custody allows the agency to prepare fiscal year budgets. In the inmate care and custody appropriation, the legislative recommendation is roughly $390 million, which is an increase of $1.8 million over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. The following appropriation line items had changes, regular salaries and matching, overtime, operating expenses, professional fees, and capital outlay. Regular salaries was due to career service payments, operating expenses, they increased for general maintenance, unit maintenance, and conservation bond payments. Professional fees was an increase from the medical contracts, the blended ADC-ACC rate increase. Capital outlay, that was for the replacement of furnishings and equipment, I believe in the kitchen and laundry. Overtime was a one-time cost. The agency received $1.5 million in fiscal year 20 and $1 million in fiscal year 21 to fill positions and other vacancies. On page 38 is our next appropriation, which is the prison industry. Correctional industries exist as a self-supporting operation within the ADC and is funded by special revenues. In the prison industry appropriation, the legislative recommendation is $10.2 million, which is a decrease of about $38,000 from the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. The appropriation line items with changes are the operating expense line item, professional fees and capital outlay salaries and matching. The regular salaries are just career service payment, but if you look at the operating expenses you will notice a difference of approximately $50,000. That was a reallocation to professional fees to procure architectural and professional contract services. In the capital outlay, it was a decrease for purchase and replacement of equipment. That was a one-time cost increase the previous fiscal year. Our next appropriation on page 40 is farm operations. The agricultural operation of the ADC is a self-supported division. In the farm operation appropriation, the legislative recommendation is for $17.3 million, which is a slight increase of a little over 321,000 over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount the changes were within the regular salaries and matching line items professional fees and capital outlay the regular salaries and matching that was due to career service payments professional fees that was reflected to I guess accurately reflect the agency's expenditures capital outlay you will notice a large increase. This was due to purchase and replace equipment per the agency. On page 42 you will see the inmate welfare treasury cash. Self-supported pin store operations within institutions provide the opportunity for inmates to purchase various commissary supplies. The fiscal year 21 agency request is for a little over 14 million which is a slight increase over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. This is due to career service payments. On page 44 you'll see our non-tax revenue receipts. This is a cash appropriation that is funded by proceeds derived from contractual agreement with a with a telephone service provider. The fiscal year 21 legislative recommendation is 2.5 million which matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. There aren't any changes. Our Our
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Speaker 58 1:35:02
next appropriation is the pause in prison. This cash appropriation
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Speaker 56 1:35:07
is funded by marketing and distribution proceeds and cash donations. The fiscal year 21 amount of $150,000 matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. There aren't any changes. And next we have the medical monetary sanctions appropriation line item which is funded through cash and treasury. Medical monetary sanctions is a cash and treasury appropriation funded from liquidated damages imposed according to ADC-ACC contract. The legislative recommendation is for 1.7 million which is a $200,000 increase over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. This is due to an increase in contracts and allow more flexibility to provide services for the agency. Mr. Chairman that concludes my
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:35:49
presentation on the Division of Corrections. Good job Josh. I'm sorry what you move review
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Speaker 2 1:36:01
we've got some questions senator representative Cavanaugh so
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Representative Frances Cavenaugh Unverified 1:36:03
good to hear from you this morning thank you mr. chair I just have a quick question I'm over here to the right all the way over here on the farm operation and it's dealing with your funding sources you have a funding sources and we actually do I think 5.6 million out of your budget stabilization trust and my understanding this is the same money that we're giving out to henderson state and my question is my understanding is through code it's not repaid so it's not technically a loan we're just giving it to you and i don't have any trouble giving it to you because i understand what it does for you it's like a farm loan and you're actually producing savings with the food and the groceries that you're comparing so i don't have any trouble with that my question is why do we use that funding source for it rather than just giving them gr that one's yours jake yes sir
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Speaker 93 1:36:55
jake lee dfa office of budget that's the process that's been used
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Speaker 94 1:37:00
traditionally this is kind of upfront capital operating funding that we provide for them it's repaid by the end
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Speaker 208 1:37:05
of june 30th i think the primary reason why we do that is because the funding is there in that budget stabilization trust fund and we know that it can be repaid general revenue once it's released there is not that repayment requirement so i think that's the reason we use it okay
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Representative Frances Cavenaugh Unverified 1:37:20
I have been informed that through code they do not have to pay back this five point six million that we give them because under code they're exempt from repayment so they don't ever pay this back we are not required to pay
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Chair Unverified 1:37:36
it back if we receive sufficient produce from the farm to offset the loan amount so what the farm produces for inmate consumption is what offsets that loan and to my knowledge we have not ever had to pay it back there's always been enough produced by the
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Speaker 309 1:37:50
farm to offset that right there's enough savings that
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Representative Frances Cavenaugh Unverified 1:37:53
you're actually above what you're borrowing yes ma'am okay but I just not required as that's why I was wondering why we do it through that but I guess you're saying you do it just in case y'all don't produce enough that they have
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Speaker 93 1:38:08
to pay it back my guess is this dates from a time when general revenue was tight enough that the funding was more available to budget stabilization trust than otherwise. Okay, thank
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Representative DeAnn Vaught Unverified 1:38:28
you. Thank you, Reverend Cavanaugh. Representative De La Rosa? Representative Vaught? You're not here. I'm here. Representative Vaught? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm kind of on that same page. I have two questions, I think. One is on the operating expense. Y'all actually spent like $74.43, but now you're asking for $11.9. Is there a reason why you're asking for such a jump? What page are you on, Senator? on 41. It's on the operating expense. Representative, sorry. That's the amount that was requested
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Speaker 319 1:39:16
through the biennial budget process. I think it would be a case perhaps of some excess appropriation in the event that we do have
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Representative DeAnn Vaught Unverified 1:39:24
strong operations. Okay. Can I ask another question, Mr. Chair? No, you can. When you go to look at conference and travel expense, it says roughly $1,500, and now you're wanting $53,000. Can you explain that, please?
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Speaker 117 1:39:37
I would have to assume that's a
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Speaker 322 1:39:42
typo, honestly. Is that something that can
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Speaker 323 1:39:44
be fixed? Because that's like a large, large jump.
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Chair Unverified 1:39:49
And on the other issue, on the 11.9, I think it's because if the farm produces and they have that money, they would be spending it. for example they have a plan to add more wells but when they don't have the money they just don't spend it that makes sense but this conference and travel expense i assume is a typo jake did you get
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Speaker 93 1:40:10
a better answer yes sir that's part of the biennial recommendation that was what was adopted uh during the session
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Speaker 319 1:40:15
but uh you know if you compare that to actual expenses certainly that does seem like
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Representative DeAnn Vaught Unverified 1:40:20
there's more there than than we might need yeah way more than what you might need um and one more question, Mr. Chair, and I'm done. I promise. So if you go to Capital Overlay, can you tell me what equipment was bought? I can't, but I'm sure Mr. Faribault can. Because that's a big jump too. I mean,
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Speaker 328 1:40:43
it's $50,000 to $330,000. So it's a large jump
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Representative DeAnn Vaught Unverified 1:40:46
also. Actually, I guess it's going to $680,000. Sorry. Mr. Faribault, tell
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Speaker 330 1:40:50
us who you are and you're recognized. Davey Faribault,
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Speaker 331 1:40:54
Farm Administrator. The the increase this year was we we leased more equipment this
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Speaker 281 1:40:58
year than what we had in the past. I think there's 27 total units that we leased. We're going to more of a lease program. The reason we're doing that is we get two years full warranty and if a machine is down for more than 48 hours they have to put give us a replacement. Yes sir. Okay thank you
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Representative DeAnn Vaught Unverified 1:41:15
Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Faribault.
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:41:24
Senator Flowers, you're recognized. On page 45, there is interest that accrued $100,000. Can you tell me, where does that go? Is that, can you explain that for me?
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Speaker 335 1:41:55
That particular amount, I can't. I'm assuming that
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Speaker 117 1:42:06
it just goes into that same account. This is the telephone receipts, and
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Chair Unverified 1:42:11
it's used for things like computers, safety equipment, STAB VEST, STAINLESS STEEL ROOF REPAIRS, ALL OF THAT'S PAID OUT OF THIS FUND. WELL, IS IT, DOES
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:42:23
ANY OF IT GO BACK INTO THE FUND BALANCE?
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Speaker 94 1:42:28
I'M ASSUMING IT DOES. OKAY. THAT'S THE AMOUNT THAT WAS IN ASES, OR THE STATE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN THERE. MY UNDERSTANDING IS IT HAS CARRIED FORWARD FROM PRIOR YEARS IN THE AMOUNTS. you look on that you'll see zeros going across there so there's no plan to expend those funds so but they
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:42:53
still exist yes ma'am so what and it's used for like ms kelly just explained for i mean is there an appropriation that allows for the use of those funds uh if we
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Speaker 94 1:43:05
requested one there would be yes but we are not asking for an appropriation for those funds so we
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:43:11
can assume it's a hundred thousand dollars a little over a hundred thousand dollars in interest and I guess that would be accruing interest as well would it not that's my understanding yes so where do we ever see that in in revenues of the state overall is it where does it is it just something that's within the department of Corrections yes ma'am it
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Chair Unverified 1:43:43
is and the telephone fund expenditures are approved by the Board of Corrections we present a budget to them and then with their approval we are able to spend those funds
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Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified 1:43:57
but it never goes because it's cash revenue generated it never goes back into general revenue correct okay can you can we get an update on exactly how much the hundred thousand-plus has generated in terms of continuing interest yes ma'am okay under fires we'll
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Speaker 53 1:44:22
get stacked follow-up on that all right thank you thank you Senator Hickey
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Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr Unverified 1:44:29
yes and I hate that the other gentleman sat back down My question is just to expand on Representative Vaught's question a little bit more on the capital outlay. Mr. Faribault, you might come back. And this may be correct, but it's a little bit past what I said. I'm going to wait until he gets here. Okay, and again, I'm just following up a little bit further with what you said on page 41 about the capital A as it relates to Representative Vaught's question. on the capital outlay you said that we're now leasing more is that correct yes sir and those lease payments you're putting under your capital outlay but so in other words i'll i just assume that that would be purchases or improvements to our real properties or things to that nature but you're actually putting the lease payments themselves in that category
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Speaker 94 1:45:27
My understanding is, yes, that's a proper accounting of those expenses against that capital outlay
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Speaker 215 1:45:32
line. Okay. Because it's a use or something? I think it's a payment towards an asset that qualifies for capital outlay. Is it a lease purchase that
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Speaker 347 1:45:46
we're doing, or is it just a straight lease?
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Speaker 349 1:45:50
No, these are just straight leases. We did start
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Speaker 281 1:45:53
out with lease purchase, but we decided against that. so these are going to these are just straight purses uh leases we keep them two years and then we turn them around okay senator hickey
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Speaker 350 1:46:06
we can get we can get you some more information on that because i'm not sure it all makes sense
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Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr Unverified 1:46:12
to me i'm with you on that well and that would be my question i guess if we were purchasing prior to i would have thought that our capital outlay would have been at least somewhere close to close to that so even if we were doing purchases before and we're now doing leases which if if we find out that leases are supposed to be under the capital out late even without a lease purchase then that's going to be fine but I'm with I'm with Representative Vaught and some of the other ones I'm a little confused at that jump so if Senator Teague saying we're going to get it then I'm going to wait till that. Mr. Anderson is going get on it for us. Thank you sir. Yes sir and
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Speaker 215 1:46:51
uh Paul Othian from our office of accounting can get with you on that as well. Okay thank you Mr. Boyd.
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:46:56
All right I don't have any more questions. Are we ready for a motion? I have a motion. Executive rec have a motion. Second. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. But for you members that are sitting behind Senator Davis and are complaining about the height of her bun, there's apparently nothing going to be done about that at this time. So I appreciate if y'all just hold your complaints down. Josh,
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Speaker 67 1:47:33
you ready? My next presentation will be on the parole
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Speaker 56 1:47:37
board. Parole board responsibility includes conducting parole hearings throughout the state, making decisions on conditional release of inmates from correctional facilities. On page 51, you'll see the parole board operations is funded through Miscellaneous Agencies Fund. On page 52, you'll see the appropriation summary for the parole board operations. The fiscal year 21 legislative reg totals $2.4 million, which is a slight increase of 2000 over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount and that is solely due to career service payments mr. chairman that concludes my presentation on
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Speaker 55 1:48:14
the parole board I didn't take long any questions I don't see questions John you may have
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:48:23
made a trip for nothing so does that mean we're ready for a vote motion I have a motion a second any discussion on the motion all those in favor aye opposed
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Speaker 356 1:48:36
guys have it good work done thank you Josh
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Speaker 67 1:48:43
my next presentation will be the Riverside vocational technical school which starts on page 54 54 the agency provides
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Speaker 56 1:48:54
vocational training all qualified inmates within ADC and DCC that will allow them to reenter society with a marketable skill looking at the division appropriations summary you will notice that the division has two appropriations which amount for a total of a little over 2.4 million which is an increase of a little over 5,000 over the fiscal year 20 authorized. On page 55 we have our first appropriation line item which is Riverside State Operations. The legislative recommendation is for over 2.3 million which is a slight increase over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount. The increase is solely due to career service payments our next probation line item on page 57 is the plumbing apprentice ship program the plumbing apprenticeship program is it as is administered by a Riverside vocational technical school the legislative recommendation is for over seventy nine thousand which is a slight increase over the fiscal year 20 authorized amount this is due to career service payments mr. chairman this concludes my presentation on Riverside vocational technical school. Do I have any questions on
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Speaker 64 1:50:01
Riverside? I don't see any. Are we ready for a
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:50:07
motion? I have a motion. Executive rec a second. All those in favor aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Where
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Speaker 56 1:50:17
are we going now Josh? My final presentation is on Arkansas sentencing commission which starts on page 60. The The purpose of the Arkansas Sentencing Commission is to establish, maintain, and revise sentencing guidelines to monitor and assess the effect of legislation and policy on correctional resources. The legislative recommendation is for a little over $412,000, which matches the fiscal year 20 authorized amount.
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Speaker 55 1:50:43
There aren't any changes. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my presentation on Sentencing Commission. That was quick. So any questions? Executive
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:50:57
rec, I have a motion. Second. second all those in favor aye opposed guys have it miss kelly thank you josh thank you thank you members i think that winds us
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Chair Unverified 1:51:06
up for the day senator henry we could have worked this afternoon i most humbly apologize so we're here in the morning at nine
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Senator Larry Teague Unverified 1:51:16
we got education public school we'll be here till noon all right thank you You
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Agenda

A. Call to Order

4:39

B. Institutions of Higher Education Budget Requests for Fiscal Year 2021

6:02

C. Department of Corrections Legislative Audit Findings

9:36

D. Other Business

1:51:07

E. Adjournment

1:51:30

Speakers

Speaker 2
3 segments
Chair Unverified
95 segments
Representative Jim Dotson Unverified
5 segments
Speaker 14
1 segment
Speaker 17
1 segment
Senator Larry Teague Unverified
20 segments
Speaker 22
3 segments
Representative Fredrick J. Love Unverified
7 segments
Speaker 27
3 segments
Speaker 28
1 segment
Speaker 30
1 segment
Senator Linda Chesterfield Unverified
10 segments
Representative Jim Wooten Unverified
16 segments
Speaker 48
3 segments
Speaker 53
2 segments
Speaker 55
4 segments
Speaker 56
33 segments
Representative Dwight Tosh Unverified
3 segments
Speaker 64
3 segments
Senator Bart Hester Unverified
2 segments
Speaker 75
1 segment
Speaker 81
4 segments
Speaker 86
1 segment
Speaker 93
4 segments
Speaker 94
10 segments
Speaker 96
1 segment
Speaker 98
1 segment
Speaker 102
18 segments
Senator Gary Stubblefield Unverified
7 segments
Speaker 117
8 segments
Speaker 119
1 segment
Speaker 129
2 segments
Speaker 69
2 segments
Speaker 137
14 segments
Senator Will Bond Unverified
13 segments
Speaker 143
2 segments
Representative Jeff Wardlaw Unverified
1 segment
Speaker 168
1 segment
Speaker 174
8 segments
Speaker 175
1 segment
Speaker 1
1 segment
Representative Rick Beck Unverified
7 segments
Speaker 122
1 segment
Speaker 134
2 segments
Representative Jack Ladyman Unverified
5 segments
Speaker 185
1 segment
Speaker 189
1 segment
Representative Marcus E. Richmond Unverified
4 segments
Speaker 191
1 segment
Representative Robin Lundstrum Unverified
13 segments
Speaker 205
1 segment
Speaker 142
1 segment
Speaker 227
1 segment
Speaker 173
2 segments
Speaker 230
1 segment
Speaker 186
1 segment
Speaker 234
4 segments
Speaker 124
4 segments
Representative Lane Jean Chair Unverified
2 segments
Speaker 240
1 segment
Speaker 243
1 segment
Speaker 248
2 segments
Representative Douglas House Unverified
3 segments
Speaker 256
2 segments
Senator Stephanie Flowers Unverified
15 segments
Speaker 266
9 segments
Speaker 273
3 segments
Speaker 269
1 segment
Speaker 272
1 segment
Speaker 277
1 segment
Speaker 281
5 segments
Speaker 21
1 segment
Speaker 290
1 segment
Speaker 148
1 segment
Speaker 67
3 segments
Speaker 58
1 segment
Representative Frances Cavenaugh Unverified
4 segments
Speaker 208
1 segment
Speaker 309
1 segment
Representative DeAnn Vaught Unverified
6 segments
Speaker 319
2 segments
Speaker 322
1 segment
Speaker 323
1 segment
Speaker 328
1 segment
Speaker 330
1 segment
Speaker 331
1 segment
Speaker 335
1 segment
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr Unverified
5 segments
Speaker 215
3 segments
Speaker 347
1 segment
Speaker 349
1 segment
Speaker 350
1 segment
Speaker 356
1 segment