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Corrections budget calls for X-ray scanners, recorded visiting phones and large overtime increase
Summary
The county's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation seeks modest capital and operating enhancements (front-lobby X-ray scanner, visiting-phone recording, kitchen shadow board) while reporting a projected FY26 overtime budget of about $9.4 million after adjustments and a recommended CIP timing shift for the Justice Center.
Ben Stevenson, director of the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, told the Public Safety Committee the department is pursuing several safety and operational upgrades alongside a training-academy milestone and a medical-unit refresh.
Veronica Howard of OMB summarized the FY26 recommended DOCR operating budget at about $95 million, an increase of roughly $11 million (13%) from the prior year. Howard identified three programmatic enhancements for committee decision: a front-lobby X-ray scanner (cost: $142,000) intended to identify contraband and reduce drug smuggling; adding recording capability for visiting phones (cost: $50,000) to assist evidence review; and a kitchen shadow board (cost: $30,000) to improve accounting for sharps and utensils after American Correctional Association audit findings.
Howard also flagged structural items: two $680,000 adjustments for inflation in food and pharmacy services because of higher average daily population; a planned pretrial assessment-tool revalidation ($40,000 required by state law); and a $3.3% inflationary adjustment for nonprofit service providers connected to DOCR totaling $33,000, to be handled countywide. She described one Justice Center CIP amendment that shifts spending from FY27 to FY28 for affordability without raising total project cost.
The committee examined DOCR overtime closely. Howard said last year's FY25 overtime budget was increased but actual expenditures already exceeded that amount; the recommended FY26 overtime budget now totals about $9.4 million after trimming a one-time increase but adding $6.41 million. Stevenson said the department is leveraging real-time IT dashboards and staffing adjustments to manage overtime use.
Committee members did not move to cut the enhancements; staff recommended approval as submitted and agreed to follow up on potential supplemental appropriations if the council's timing required it.
