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Subcommittee moves Justice Reinvestment 2 funds to ongoing DOC reentry supports, plans morning vote
Summary
Representative Trevor Skrull told the committee the coordinated justice reform advisory council and DOC favor converting remaining JR2 funds into base funding for reentry services; the committee agreed to an Appropriations amendment and planned a vote the following morning.
Representative Trevor Skrull, a member of House Appropriations, told the Corrections & Institutions subcommittee on March 13 that the balance of previously set‑aside Justice Reinvestment 2 (JR2) funds should be converted to ongoing base funding for reentry services and related programs.
Skrull said the JR2 set‑aside had originally been $900,000. Over time, portions of that amount were shifted into base appropriations; the subcommittee now records a remaining set‑aside of $490,000. DOC requested $100,000 for a forensic assessment program at the Department of Mental Health; with that allocation the remaining JR2 balance would be about $390,000, Skrull said. He proposed and reported committee support for using the remaining funds as ongoing (base) funding to support reentry services and, specifically, to pilot services for men at Northern State and other reentry programs the Department of Corrections oversees.
Skrull said he consulted House Judiciary and DOC before bringing the proposal back to Corrections & Institutions and received generally favorable responses. The subcommittee planned to remove the appropriations section from the committee bill (so the funding would move into the DOC base) and then vote on the amendment in the morning session. The committee expects to present the resulting amendments and the committee bill to Appropriations and then to the floor in a subsequent week.
“I floated the idea of using some of that money for this particular program,” Skrull said, describing conversations with DOC and committee staff. “This will be base funding. It’s not one time.”
Members signaled support for the change, and the committee scheduled the formal amendment vote for the next morning. Skrull and committee staff said they would continue to coordinate with DOC and House Judiciary so that the funding shift followed committee jurisdictional norms and DOC could use the funds for reentry programming and facility‑based services.
