HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo re Opt Out Department of Administrative Services
Dave Kanner - County Administrator
1300 NW Wall St., Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701-1960
(541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202
www.co.deschutes.or.us
March 12, 2009
TO: Board of Commissioners
FROM: Dave Kanner
RE: Opt-out from Community Corrections funding
Under the Community Corrections Act, adopted by the Legislature in 1995, the State of
Oregon transferred the adult parole & probation function to counties and agreed to
provide funding to counties to carry out that function. The law further provided that
offenders convicted of state crimes and sentenced to a year or less in prison would serve
their jail terms in the county jail of the county in which they were sentenced. A key
provision of the law is that if the state fails to provide funding at the “essential budget
level,” counties can “opt out” of this agreement with the state and turn the P&P function
back over to the Department of Corrections. This occurred in 2003, when Linn and
Douglas Counties opted out.
The recent budget rebalancing plan adopted by the Legislature cut CCA funding by $6.9
million statewide and by $300,000 in Deschutes County, thus opening the opt out
window. There may be further cuts in the ’09-’11 biennium, but it’s expected that the
DoC will revise the required service levels to match available funding in order to prevent
opt out.
At your March 18 work session, Sheriff Larry Blanton and Community Justice Director
Ken Hales will be available to talk to you about how the opt out process works (see
attached documents). We will also have Ginger Martin of the DoC on the phone with us
to provide further explanation and to answer questions.