One of the first challenges to Governor Lynch’s appeal for greater fiscal restraint could be coming soon.
House budget writers are sorting through spreadsheets, reports and graphs to determine how much it would cost to treat 17 year olds in trouble with the law as juveniles.
Right now, most 17 year olds are treated as adults.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.
State Representative Mary Beth Walz seems to have left no report unturned in her search to see what happens to 17 year olds who fall into the adult corrections system.
TAPE: in one study...in a study in Washington....the MacArthur Study...the study I found most interesting....
What emerged out of her pile of papers, she says, is that sugar works a whole lot better than vinegar.
T.38
14:41 what I am trying to say is that...
T.38
12:11 the juveniles seem to respond better to treatment than....to...scared straight programs, some of these tough, heavy handed programs on the juveniles, they are finding that’s the wrong way to go.
That’s why Walz has sponsored House Bill 584, which would put 17 year olds back into the juvenile system.
Earlier this year, the House overwhelmingly endorsed the policy position.
But now members of the House Finance Committee must consider the fiscal impact.
Mike Skibbie a former public defender argues New Hampshire could realize great savings by passing the measure.
And he says, it’s not just by avoiding the $30,000 a year it costs to incarcerate these young men.
T.46
6:09 what sort of police time are you saving? What sort of municipal costs are being saved, b/c you are not responding to offenses that are not going to be committed by the kids you are treating appropriately now instead of putting them into the adult system...what about court time, defense lawyers, parole officers...the public benefits being paid while they are incarcerated. What about the losses to the victims that aren’t going to be victims?
Health and Human Services’ Bill Fenniman who gave committee members an itemized list of how much HB 584 would cost.
T.47
3:34 we estimate 7 million in field services, that’s youth probation officers over the four year period. In the rehab programs....4.1 million, and the placements, would be 24 million.
The Department isn’t taking a position on the measure.
Fenniman estimates that a change in the law would cost state taxpayers 7-8 million dollars a year over the next four years.
T.47
4:36 in the juvenile justice system the primary goal is treatment, assistance with the families. We are facing a variety of children that have mental illness, extremely expensive to treat. Children with drug and alcohol addictions, the treatment for those sorts of things are very expensive.
Advocates who want to see 17 year olds put in the juvenile system believe those numbers are inflated.
One key statistic that should help pinpoint the actual cost is the number of 17 year olds currently in the adult corrections system.
But no one on the committee seemed to know that number.
It should be available sometime next week.
Even if Fenniman’s estimate is off a little- which committee member Fran Wendelboe doubts- she says the bill is too rich given the current climate.
:33... I thought ht governor made it very clear that he is not going to entertain any big budget busters on top of the budget being busted already.
Representative Sharon Nordgren- who chairs the sub-committee- says the governor did include an exception for emergencies.
And she says this qualifies.
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3:13 I would be concerned that the kids that are in the state prison and even in the women’s prison in Goffstown are not receiving the best influence on them to go on and lead a productive life.
Wendelboe chuckled that after treating 17 year olds as adults for the past ten years, raising the age of juveniles somehow now qualifies as an emergency.
She says she expects Democrats will pass the measure, blind to the cost.
But with an eye towards the November elections, she warns somebody will end up paying for it.
For NHPR News, I’m DG.
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