Chapter 0298 - 482R - H Ver of SB1476

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 12-267, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE12-267. Adult probation services fund; accounts; expenditure plan; use

A. The board of supervisors shall designate a chief fiscal officer who shall establish and administer an adult probation services fund consisting of:

1. County general fund appropriations for adult probation.

2. State appropriations for adult probation including:

(a) Monies for adult probation officers authorized by article 6 of this chapter.

(b) Monies for state aid for adult probation services authorized by this article.

(d) Monies for adult intensive probation pursuant to title 13, chapter 9.

(e) Monies received pursuant to section 12-270 that each county shall use for the following:

(i) Increasing the availability of substance abuse treatment programs for probationers.

(ii) Increasing the availability of risk reduction programs and interventions for probationers.

(iii) Grants to nonprofit victim services organizations to partner with the probation department and the court to assist victims and increase the amount of restitution collected from probationers.

3. Probation fees collected pursuant to section 13‑901.

4. Federal monies provided for adult probation.

5. Adult probation monies from any other source.

B. The chief fiscal officer shall establish and maintain separate accounts in the fund showing receipts and expenditures of monies from each source listed in subsection A of this section. The presiding judge of the superior court shall annually present to the board of supervisors for approval a detailed expenditure plan for the adult probation services fund accounts. Any modifications to the expenditure plan affecting state appropriations shall be made in accordance with the rules and procedures established by the supreme court. Any modifications to the expenditure plan affecting county appropriated funds shall be made in accordance with the policies established by the county. The chief fiscal officer shall disburse monies from the fund accounts only at the direction of the presiding judge of the superior court. The chief fiscal officer of each county shall, on or before August 31 of each year for the preceding fiscal year, shall submit an annual report to the supreme court showing the total amount of receipts and expenditures in each account of the adult probation services fund.

C. The state monies in the adult probation services fund shall be used in accordance with guidelines established by the supreme court or the granting authority.

D. State monies expended from the adult probation services fund shall be used to supplement, not supplant, county appropriations for the superior court adult probation department.

E. Up to twenty‑five thousand dollars annually deposited in the adult probation services fund shall be used to pay the annual assessment on member states of the interstate compact for the supervision of adult offenders established in section 31‑467, Article X, subsection B.

F. County monies in the adult probation services fund shall be used in accordance with the fiscal policies and procedures established by the board of supervisors. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Title 12, chapter 2, article 7, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 12-270, to read:

START_STATUTE12-270. Probation revocation and crime reduction performance funding

A. The joint legislative budget committee staff shall annually calculate:

1. Any costs that have been avoided by reducing the percentage of people on supervised probation from each county whose PROBATION is revoked and who are sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the state department of corrections. The joint legislative budget committee staff shall calculate the cost avoidance for each county by comparing the number of people whose probation is revoked and who are sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the state department of corrections to the estimated number of supervised probationers that would have been revoked at the baseline revocation percentage rate. This calculation shall be based on the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the report is required pursuant to subsection E of this section. The baseline revocation percentage rate shall be the revocation percentage rate in fiscal year 2007‑2008. The joint legislative budget committee staff shall calculate an annual per person avoided cost by using the state department of corrections cost for contracted private beds as of June 30 in the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the report is required pursuant to subsection E of this section and the average length of incarceration for a person whose PROBATION is revoked and who is sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the state department of corrections.

2. The percentage of people on supervised probation from each county who are convicted of a new felony offense compared to the percentage of probationers who would have been convicted of a new felony offense at the baseline probation conviction rate. This calculation shall be based on the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the report is required pursuant to subsection E of this section. The baseline probation conviction rate shall be the conviction rate in fiscal year 2007-2008.

B. Notwithstanding section 12‑269, beginning in fiscal year 2010‑2011, the legislature shall annually appropriate to the administrative office of the courts forty per cent of any costs that are avoided as calculated in subsection A, paragraph 1 of this section to be deposited in the adult probation services fund of each county established pursuant to section 12-267 if there is a reduction in the percentage of people from that county who are on supervised probation and who are convicted of a new felony offense as calculated in subsection A, paragraph 2 of this section.

C. The monies appropriated pursuant to this section shall be used to supplement, not supplant, any other state or county appropriation for the superior court adult probation department.

D. On or before October 1 of each year, the administrative office of the courts and the state department of corrections shall jointly report to the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives and the governor and shall provide a copy of the report to the joint legislative budget committee, the secretary of state and the director of the Arizona state library, archives and public records. The report shall include:

1. The average number of people on supervised probation in each county.

2. The Number of probationers in each county whose probation is revoked each year.

3. The number of probationers in each county who are convicted of new crimes each year.

4. The state department of correction's most recent cost for contracted private beds.

E. Beginning in fiscal year 2009‑2010, the joint legislative budget committee staff shall annually report by November 15 to the joint legislative budget committee the results calculated pursuant to this section.

F. On or before June 30, 2014, the auditor general shall:

1. Complete a performance audit, as defined in section 41-1278, of the probation revocation or adjustment and crime reduction performance as provided by this section and section 13-924.

2. Provide a copy of the performance audit to the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, the governor, the secretary of state, the director of the Arizona state library, archives and public records and any other person requesting a copy. END_STATUTE

Sec. 3. Title 13, chapter 9, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 13-924, to read:

START_STATUTE13-924. Probation; earned time credit; applicability

A. The court may adjust the period of a probationer’s supervised probation on the recommendation of an adult probation officer for earned time credit.

B. Earned time credit equals twenty days for every thirty days that a probationer does all of the following:

1. Exhibits positive progression toward the goals and treatment of the probationer’s case plan.

2. Is current on payments for court ordered restitution and other obligations.

3. Is current in completing community restitution.

C. Any earned time credit awarded pursuant to this section shall be revoked if a probationer is found in violation of a condition of probation.

D. This section does not apply to a probationer who is currently:

1. On lifetime probation.

2. On probation for any class 2 or 3 felony.

3. On probation exclusively for a misdemeanor offense.

4. Required to register pursuant to section 13-3821.

e. This section has no effect on the ability of the court to terminate the period of probation or intensive probation pursuant to section 13‑901, subsection E at a time earlier than originally imposed.END_STATUTE

Sec. 4. Legislative findings

The legislature finds that:

1. Arizona's crime rate is unacceptably high and among the highest in the nation.

2. Arizona's prison population is projected to increase by fifty per cent from 2007 to 2017 according to an independent projection by the JFA institute assuming current admissions trends continue and is estimated to cost taxpayers an additional two to three billion dollars in construction and operating costs over the next decade.

3. Each year over four thousand probationers are revoked to prison in Arizona for failing to comply with the conditions of their probation supervision and not necessarily for committing a new crime. The cost of housing these probation revocations in state prison costs taxpayers an estimated one hundred million dollars annually.

4. Nearly eighty per cent of the persons whose probation is revoked and who are sent to prison are property or drug offenders, and alcohol or drug use was a factor in forty-five per cent of the revocations.

5. Half of the individuals revoked from probation in Maricopa county chose to be sentenced to prison rather than be placed back on probation supervision in the community.

6. Just a few "high stakes" neighborhoods in Arizona account for a majority of criminal activity and involvement in the criminal justice system. A single neighborhood in Phoenix is home to just one per cent of the state's total resident population, but accounts for six and one-half per cent of the state's prison population.

7. To increase public safety, state, county and local governments must work together to integrate efforts by law enforcement, probation officers, parole officers, prosecutors, social service organizations and community based organizations in these high stakes communities to fight crime.

Sec. 5. Applicability

This act applies to any person who is serving a term of probation on or after the effective date of this act.

Sec. 6. Effective date

Section 13‑924, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act, is effective from and after December 31, 2008.