Appendix C

Criminal Justice System Expenditures

The state's criminal justice system is comprised of several executive and judicial branch agencies, including the state police, courts, state's attorneys, public defenders, adult probation, correction department, parole board, and victim services. Table C-1 shows the total state appropriation for the criminal justice system to arrest, prosecute and defend, adjudicate, incarcerate, and supervise pre-trial and convicted offenders. In fiscal year 2000, the total expenditures for the state's criminal justice represented about 10 percent of the total state budget.

Municipal police departments perform the bulk of law enforcement duties and make the majority of felony and misdemeanor arrests in Connecticut. These agencies, however, are not funded through the state budget process and were not included in this analysis.

In addition, there are other state agencies that are not part of the traditional criminal justice system, but provide services to the criminal offender population such as the Departments of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Social Services. However, their budgets were not included in this analysis because it was difficult to identify how much was spent specifically on offenders.

As shown, since FY 97, the DOC budget has accounted for more than half of the total appropriation for the state's criminal justice system. The department's budget has increased each year, except for FY 98.

           

Table C-1. Criminal Justice System Agencies Budgets

 

FY97

FY98

FY99

FY00

FY01*

Judicial Branch

$197,379,100

$210,743,108

$242,529,422

$279,989,288

$306,948,031

Department of Correction

401,163,537

391,970,720

414,776,321

470,744,987

499,712,416

Board of Parole

6,435,906

6,011,195

6,848,582

7,911,423

9,281,283

Division of State Police

25,192,860

29,569,492

62,262,569

88,125,334

97,232,589

Division of Criminal Justice

26,604,499

28,754,012

30,842,777

35,615,802

37,297,565

Division of Public Defender

19,706,796

21,597,083

23,513,788

29,330,139

31,002,677

Victim Advocate's Office

0

0

3,195

108,339

206,179

TOTAL

676,482,698

679,235,610

782,776,654

911,825,312

981,680,740

The judicial branch budget includes only the criminal court operations and court support services, which oversees adult probation, alternative sanctions, and bail services. Civil and family court operations and other administrative functions were not included.

The Division of Criminal Justice, which includes the chief state's attorney, oversees the state's attorneys.

The Divison of Public Defender is not defined in statutute as a criminal justice agency, but was included in this analysis.

*FY01 is an estimate

Source of data: Comptroller's Reported Expenditure

Chapter TitleFigure C-1. shows the percentage of the total criminal justice budget that each agency received in fiscal year 2000. The Department of Correction accounts for half of the almost $912 million expenditure. The judicial branch received 31 percent of the total budget, the state police 10 percent. The state's attorneys, the Board of Parole, and the Division of the Public Defender combined received nine percent of the total criminal justice budget.

 

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