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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Rodriquez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1-29-06

HB

SHORT TITLE

DISPROPORTIONATE MINORITY CONTACT

CENTER

SB 204

ANALYST Lucero

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$50.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates HB376,

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico State University (NMSU)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The bill appropriates fifty thousand dollars ($50.0) to CYFD for expenditure in 2007 to establish

a technical assistance resource center to support the disproportionate minority contact task force.

The disproportionate minority contact task force is supervised by the juvenile justice advisory

committee (JJAC). The technical assistance resource center shall involve the school of social

work at:

1.

New Mexico Highlands Univeristy

2.

New Mexico State University

3.

University of New Mexico

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $50.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Senate Bill 204 – Page

2

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of 2007 shall revert to the gen-

eral fund.

This appropriation was not included in the department’s budget request; however the operating

budget does contain federal funds for JJAC of which $50.0 is for disproportion minority contact

studies. This appropriation was not part of the executive recommendation.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

NMSU provides the following statement:

This minimal amount of funding would help in measuring the prevalence of the problem in New

Mexico and assist in pulling together a compendium of “best practices” nation-wide that could

then be made available to agencies in New Mexico. It would most likely be insufficient in

amount to address implementation of any intervention efforts.

The proposed Center would involve the two Schools of Social Work within the State: New Mex-

ico State University and Highlands University (there is no School of Social Work at the Univer-

sity of New Mexico, but perhaps a related social science program could nonetheless participate).

There is also a social work baccalaureate degree program at Western NM University, but that

program is not mentioned in the bill.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

There is no administrative appropriation to CYFD or JJAC to administer the technical assistance

resource center.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

SB204 relates to the General Appropriation Act which appropriates federal funds to Juvenile Jus-

tice Advisory Committee. HAFC has recommended language to ensure $50.0 federal funds con-

tinue to be transferred to JJAC for disproportional minority contact studies.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

UNM does not have a school of social work.

CYFD provided the following statement:

The bill cites the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) as supervising the Disproportion-

ate Minority Contact task force. The JJAC coordinates with the task force which reports directly

to the Cabinet Secretary.

Funds will be used to follow the Behavioral Health Collaborative model for encouraging joint

research at New Mexico institutions of higher education.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

From: A Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Chronology. by Heidi Hsia, DMC Coordina-

tor, State Relations and Assistance Division, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preven-

tion

Senate Bill 204 – Page

3

Disproportional minority contact (DMC) “was brought to national attention by the Coalition for

Juvenile Justice (formerly the National Coalition of State Juvenile Justice Advisory Groups) in

its 1988 annual report to Congress, A Delicate Balance. In the 1988 Amendments to the Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974, Congress required that States address

DMC in their State plans. Specifically, under the Formula Grants Program, each State must ad-

dress efforts to reduce the proportion of youth detained or confined in secure detention facilities,

secure correctional facilities, jails, and lockups who are members of minority groups if it exceeds

the proportion of the general population. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

(OJJDP) has defined minority populations as African Americans, American Indians, Asians, Pa-

cific Islanders, and Hispanics.”

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

The disproportionate representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system would con-

tinue to be an unexplored issue, lacking even baseline information on the rates for this concern.

DL/nt