HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A new financial analysis of more than a dozen proposed changes to Connecticut’s criminal justice system indicates a major overhaul could cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
Topping the list is a proposal to build two new correctional facilities, including a 1,000-bed medium security prison and a 1,200-bed medical and mental health facility for inmates. The nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated it would cost the state about $400 million over 20 years to build them.
Another idea, to impose a mandatory life prison sentence for anyone convicted of a third dangerous felony, is estimated to cost the state’s court system about $5 million more a year and the prison system about $4.3 million more a year.
Both concepts, among others, will be discussed Tuesday at a 1 p.m. public hearing at the Legislative Office Building. The General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on packages of proposed reforms submitted by fellow lawmakers, the Judicial Branch, the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office and the Office of Victim Advocate.
Meanwhile, Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s Sentencing and Parole Review Task Force will hold its public hearing on Monday at 9 a.m. to discuss possible changes to how people are charged with crimes, sentenced and paroled.
Both groups ultimately hope to work together to propose a combined package of reforms to lawmakers, who are scheduled to meet in February. The law changes are in response to last summer’s home invasion in Cheshire that left a mother and her two daughters dead. Two parolees have been charged with the crimes.
Rich Harris, a spokesman for Rell, said it’s hard to say how much the state will ultimately end up spending in the wake of the Cheshire murders.
“The ultimate costs of any changes in the criminal justice system will have to be calculated once the governor and the legislature decide the best way to proceed with ensuring that violent offenders are prevented from causing further harm to people and the system works the way it should for both offenders and the residents of Connecticut,” Harris said.
Following are estimated costs for some other proposed changes under consideration:
• Establishing mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain burglary offenses would affect about 230 offenders and cost the state about $9.6 million more a year to keep them in prison longer.
• Changing members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to a full-time staff would cost about $1.9 million a year.
• Requiring global positioning tracking of any person sentenced to probation or conditional discharge for first- or second-degree burglary would cost about $941,600 a year.
• Establishing a registry of people released from prison to parole would cost of about $1.6 million to $2 million.
• Requiring psychiatric exams for certain offenders eligible for parole would cost annually about $232,000.
• Creating about 200 beds for sex offenders in secure residential treatment facilities would cost the state about $15 million to $20 million a year.
AP-ES-11-24-07 1457EST
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