Division of Criminal Justice Services

The enacted budget makes the following changes to the Executive Budget (March 28, 2012):

·         Increases the All Funds appropriation by $700,000, to $95,206,000.  The increase is in the Crime Prevention and Reduction Strategies Program,  Maintenance Undistributed allocation  (+$500,000 in personal services) for services and expenses of increased volume-related process related to expansion of the DNA data base, pursuant to the approved Article VII proposal.

·         Rejects the broad Executive Budget proposal to allow the Executive to have unlimited transfer and interchange authority over all State Operations appropriations. Instead it creates specific transfer and interchange authorization for State Operation appropriations, they include: OGS/Back Office, Call Center, and Information Technology. In general this authorization allows the Executive to move appropriations between state agencies for these purposes. For additional detail please see page 5 of the Summary of the SFY 2012-13 Enacted Budget memo.

 According to the Senate and Assembly analysis of the Executive Budget (Feb 17, 2012)

·         The $5 million increase in Crime Identification and Technology Account is to support improved record retention and information technology upgrades; $500,000 of this increase is for personal services.

·         The personal services increases in the Crime Prevention and Reduction Strategies (CPRS) program is related to the transfer of federally funded positions to the General Fund and the funding of 3 FTEs ($150,000) to implement the expansion of the DNA data bank.

·         The $550,000 increase in the MU Non-personal services account in the CPRS program is to the implement the expansion of the DNA data bank; $125,000 for DNA collection kits and sample processing costs, $425,000 for State Police Forensic laboratory costs.

·         The $300,000 reduction in the contractual services appropriation in the CPRS program is associated with sharing information technology services.

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis January 23, 2012):

A SFY 2012-13 workforce of 592 FTEs 3 FTEs more than the estimated workforce for 3/31/12. The adjusted FTE level for 3/31/12 is a decrease of 198 FTEs from the level projected in last year’s Executive Budget.  This is largely the result of the Legislature’s rejection of the proposed merger of Office of Victim Services, Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, and the State Commission on Corrections into the Division of Criminal Justice Services which accounts for 130 of the 198  FTEs lost in SFY 2011-12.

The following chart identifies adjustments in the current fiscal year FTEs along with the recommended differences in FY 2012-13 FTEs by program:

• Three of the additional 38 FTEs added to the Crime Prevention and Reduction Strategies (General Fund) program are necessary to implement the Executive Budget’s proposal to expand the DNA database.  The remaining 35 FTEs are transferred to the General Fund, from the Crime Prevention and Reduction Strategies Special Revenue Federal program due to a loss of federal funds. The additional State cost for these positions is offset by savings from the anticipated relocation of DCJS from leased to State-owned space which, according to the Assembly and Senate budget analyses, is estimated to be $1.1 million.

• An All Funds appropriation of $56.671 million, a $3.024 million reduction (-5.1%) from the SFY 2011-12 appropriation. 
• A Personal Services appropriation of $32.22 million a decrease of $2.1 million (-6.9%) from the SFY 2011-11 appropriation.
• A Contractual Services appropriation of $6.782 million, a decrease of $424,000

·         The Department employed an estimated 249 employees (an estimated 117 FTEs) under consultant contracts in SFY 2011-12 at a cost of $20.648 million or an average cost of $176,476 per consultant.  It is estimated that 211 consultants (an estimated 101 FTEs) will be employed in SFY 2012-13 at an estimated cost of $19.524 million or an average cost of $193,304 per consultant.  This represents a 9.5% increase in the average cost for each department consultant. The expenditures may include more than personal service costs and is inconsistent with Office of State Comptroller data on consultant spending so it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions as to the actual cost per consultant employee.

·         Article VII legislation (A9055/S6255, part A) provides for an expansion of the DNA Database. Current law only requires the collection of DNA from those convicted of any felony and certain misdemeanors defined in the penal law.  However, these crimes represent less than half the crimes on the books in New York. This legislation would require collection of DNA from all defendants convicted of any penal law misdemeanor and any felony defined in any New York law.