Oregon DOC presents six-year community corrections cost study, proposes higher capitation rates

Mike Rees, director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, and Jeremiah Stromberg, assistant director of the Community Corrections Division, told the Public Safety Subcommittee on May 6 that the department completed a statutory six‑year cost review intended to reset the community corrections capitated rate.

The study found the current local control/capitated rate is $15.09 per person per day and that a fully loaded rate could be as high as $18.18 per day. "That rate is sitting at $15.09 per day," Jeremiah Stromberg said, describing how the department calculates per‑person costs by combining a time study of staff effort with county financial data.

The nut graf: The study is intended to reflect increased staff time and service intensity since earlier time studies and to inform the Legislature whether additional state funding is needed to cover counties' costs for supervising people on probation, parole and other community programs.

Stromberg described the department's methodology: take snapshots of caseloads by risk level, apply time-study results for contact hours, and combine that with county-reported direct and indirect costs to derive a daily capitated rate. He told the committee that the department uses a lengthy 2017 time study for detailed contact-time inputs and that the statutory review is required every six years.

The department said its current forecast adjustments reduced the agency's earlier funding request. A March proposal had a higher base budget; after the April population forecast the department’s new base budget is about $279,000,000 for community corrections, down from a $312,000,000 figure presented in March. Stromberg said that change reflects slower growth in probation and post‑prison populations. He told the committee this adjustment lowers the department's cost‑study package from roughly $68 million to about $60 million compared with the earlier presentation.

Members pressed the department on the drivers behind greater staff time per person. Stromberg said the department now spends more pre‑release assessment time and more monthly contact hours with higher‑risk individuals — for example, averaging about 2.4 hours per month for high‑risk cases versus 1.5 hours for medium and 0.6 hours for low. "We were spending less than 2 hours a month with high risk individuals. We're now at 2.4 hours," he said, and added that the department has seen recidivism decrease and completion rates improve during the period of increased contact.

Committee members asked about the counties' option to opt out if the adopted rate fell below a statutory floor. Stromberg described the opt‑out threshold (the department referred to it as $2.79 in the presentation, explained as a dollar figure used in the budget build calculations) and said funding at or above the department’s built rate would require counties to maintain local community corrections operations. Representatives noted the governor's budget had included $20 million of the cost study and that the governor's total for community corrections was $332 million, an amount built on an earlier (October) forecast.

Stromberg and other DOC staff answered several follow‑ups from legislators about how recent policy changes — including deflection and changes in charging or pretrial practices — affect probation referrals and how prior justice reinvestment funding influenced past cost‑study outcomes. Stromberg said the department will follow up with county outcome comparisons for counties that opted out (Linn and Douglas) and with more precise figures about how many incarcerated adults would be eligible for compassionate or medical release.

Ending: The presentation concluded without formal action; committee members said they would follow up on specific data points, including county outcomes, eligibility counts for medical or compassionate release, and the department's per‑individual health cost figures, which DOC said it would supply later.