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Criminal Justice Coordinating Council warns steep cut would cripple core operations
Summary
CJCC leaders told the Metropolitan Council that a proposed City‑Parish allocation of $125,000 for FY2026 — described in the proposed budget as a 54.4% reduction — would force layoffs of core staff and undermine programs that divert people from jail. The mayor’s office said it will review the proposal amid tight finances.
Chris Onka, executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, told the Metropolitan Council that CJCC’s work — including pretrial diversion, retail‑theft diversion and jail‑based case navigation — depends on a small city‑parish operating allocation and that the proposed FY2026 line item would not cover core staff or overhead.
“The proposed budget of $125,000 represents a 54.4% reduction,” Onka said while reading the budget text submitted to the council. He emphasized that a separate $260,000 opioid‑abatement supplement is restricted to pretrial diversion services and cannot be…
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