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' Criminal Justice The criminal justice system in Minnesota is composed of many federal, state and local agencies working together to investigate crime, apprehend suspects, adjudicate criminal cases, assist crime victims, and sanction offenders to reduce the future risk of crime. This section of the budget includes funding for the Department of Corrections, the criminal justice-related portions of the Department of Public Safety, the courts, the Board of Public Defense, and the Department of Human Rights. The financing for Criminal Justice agencies comes from the general fund, federal grants, and other state funds. ~Ciminal J m Fund ng . _ . Percent FY 2002-03 FY 2004-05 Chance General Fund 1,368 1,387 1% All Operating Funds. 1,654 1,561 -6% The Governor's general fund budget for these agencies totals $1.4 billion - a 1 percent increase from the current biennium. The budget for all funds totals $1.6 billion, a decrease of 6 percent. Net spending growth in this area is due to the state takeover of county-funded court functions, caseload increases, and a rising prison population. Key Elements of the Budget Recommendations The Govemor's criminal justice recommendations focus state spending on core activities in order to • maintain public safety while still achieving spending reductions. Areas that were spared from the deepest reductions include funding for state prisons, courts, and the Bureau for Crime Apprehension (BCA). Other activities, while important, were less directly tied to public safety and were reduced significantly or even eliminated. This budget attempts to maintain the core services that make Minnesota's judicial and correctional system very cost effective and the model for other states. Elements of the criminal justice budget include: • Increase capacity at existing prisons. At selected prisons, up to 50% of the cells will be double- bunked to help meet a growing demand for prison space. • Shift short-term- offenders -those with less than six months left on their sentence - to local jails for remainder of term. The current system needlessly moves around these inmates, increasing state transportation, intake, and other costs. This move will free up as many as 200 beds in the state system. • Reduce funding for courts and public defenders. As with executive and legislative branch activities, it is expected that judicial branch agencies will need to review costs, consider system changes, and develop other ways to manage within reduced resources. • Reduce grants for county corrections and crime victims services and battered women per diems. Minnesota is already heavily invested in some of these activities and reductions were made to preserve core functions. • Refinement of the CriMNet strategy towards a decentralized model will allow budget savings to be realized while maintaining the project's ability to achieve success through enhanced local and • federal partnerships. Governor's 2004-05 Budget 21