2004-042 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

BILL: CS/ SB 2564 Page 2 anklet, which activates an alarm if the individual leaves the home. The Voice Recognition System makes random calls to the juvenile's domicile. If the juvenile's voice is not matched to a prior record or the individual fails to answer, an alert will sound. These calls are made arbitrarily by the system to enhance efficiency. Both monitoring devices are quite advanced and decrease the necessity for additional detention centers, therefore decreasing expenditures of the state. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice's budget for FY 2003-04 is $618.8 million, including $59.8 million for prevention; $107.1 million for detention which also includes home detention; $134.8 for probation and community corrections, and $291.4 million for residential and correctional facilities. Florida has 33 fewer juvenile felony arrests per day than it did in the mid-1990s when juvenile felony crime and victimization of citizens peaked. Transfers of juveniles to the adult system are down 61 percent from 1996, the year that transfers peaked. For FY 2003-04 the department is projected to serve 67,000 youth in prevention and early intervention programs. III. Effect of Proposed Changes: Section 1. Creates s. 985.2155, F.S., to increase the fiscal responsibility of counties for public safety issues related to juvenile detention services. Instead of the state, specifically the Department of Juvenile Justice, bearing all fiscal responsibilities for detention of juveniles, this bill requires each county to budget for the costs of pre -adjudication detention of juveniles who reside in that county. Each county will be responsible for setting aside these costs at the beginning of each fiscal year to be paid monthly to the state. Counties may collaborate with the state when calculating these expenses by considering the previous fiscal year's cost. Coordinating with the counties, the Department of Juvenile Justice will publish the costs for which each county will be responsible. The state will deposit revenues received from the counties into the Department of Juvenile Justice's Grants and Donations Trust Fund. Reconciliation of costs will occur at the end of the fiscal year between each county and the department to account for differences between the estimated and actual numbers of juveniles detained. Quarterly, funding from the counties will be examined by the Department of Juvenile Justice to ensure each county is fulfilling its responsibility for these costs. If a county fails to transfer funds, the Chief Financial Officer is required to withhold state funding to that county, equal to the amount the county has neglected to pay. In the event that a juvenile who is not a Florida resident is detained, the state will coordinate with the resident state for the collection of detention costs for the period of time prior to final court disposition. if residency of a juvenile in detention cannot be established, the state will bear financial responsibility for the costs of detention prior to adjudication. The bill recognizes that it places a burden on certain counties unable to account for such costs, and such counties are defined as "fiscally constrained counties." A "fiscally constrained county" is defined as a rural area of critical economic concern under s. 288.0656, F.S., for which the value of a mill in the county is no more than $3 million, based on the property valuations and tax data annually published by the Department of Revenue under s.195.052, F.S. Under these