Senate panel hears Department of Corrections budget request covering women—s facility, treatment, IT and Hepatitis C funding

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Senator Deaver opened the Human Resources Division public hearing on Senate Bill 2015, an appropriations measure for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR). Colby Braun, director of the department, and Michelle Zander, DOCR chief financial officer, presented the agency—s base budget, new requests and several one-time items the department says are needed to maintain operations and planned projects.

The appropriation bill under review covers the department—s central office, adult facilities, juvenile services and community corrections. Colby Braun, Director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the committee the department—s work focuses on people "whether it's people who work there or it's people who live in our facilities or if it's people who are supervised out in the community." He said the budget presentation would highlight facilities, parole and probation, pretrial services and other sections of the agency.

The DOCR asked the committee to fund several multi-year and one-time needs. Michelle Zander outlined FTE adjustments and vacancy-pool transfers the agency used in the current biennium, and described line items in the executive…