HB 18-1176

HB 18-1176, also known as the Sunset Offender Reentry Grant Program, extends a grant program that helps former prisoners reintegrate into society by providing funding to community organizations. The bill delays the program's scheduled end date from September 2018 to September 2023 and requires the Department of Corrections to distribute funds more efficiently and expand the program to serve more people, especially in rural areas and for women offenders. This means that the grant program will continue to support community organizations helping former prisoners until at least 2023, with improvements aimed at reaching a wider range of communities and individuals. The bill has been signed into law.

Official Summary

Sunset Process - House Judiciary Committee. Under current law, a grant program exists in the department of corrections (department) to provide funding to eligible community-based organizations that provide reentry services to offenders. The grant program is scheduled to repeal on September 1, 2018. The bill reschedules the repeal of the grant program to September 1, 2023. The bill also provides that, in awarding grants from the grant program, the department shall release as much as one quarter of the amount annually appropriated to the grant program to an intermediary at the beginning of each fiscal year. The intermediary shall determine how much of this amount is awarded to each community partner as an advance portion of grant money to be awarded to the community partner. The bill requires the department to expand the grant program in the 2018-19 fiscal year to maximize the number of grantees; add grantees in underserved communities, especially in rural areas; and add one or more grantees that specialize in serving the reentry needs of women offenders. The bill makes an appropriation. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

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