2022-23 Fiscal Year Budget Contains Hundreds of Millions of Dollars of Investments in Treatment, Re-entry and Victim Services; Record $161 Million in Prop. 47 Savings
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Californians for Safety and Justice, the state’s leading justice reform advocacy organization, lauded the 2022-2023 fiscal year budget approved by the state legislature Wednesday for seeking to address rising violence by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in crime and harm prevention programs and in programs to help victims of crime heal.
Included in the $300 billion budget is at least $84 million in investments to expand and enhance services for victims of crime, including a one-time $50 million allocation to create a first-of-its-kind-in-the-nation pilot program providing direct and flexible cash assistance to survivors of crime and a $27 million allocation to support Trauma Recovery Centers statewide and to create satellite offices in underserved and rural locations in Northern and Central California.
The budget also contains more than $260 million worth of investments to strengthen and grow the state’s re-entry services infrastructure, including a $120 million investment over three years to expand community re-entry centers, a $52.5 million investment to fund workforce development and a flexible cash assistance program for people returning home after a period of incarceration and a $31.8 million investment over three years in the Returning Home Well program, which provides emergency transitional housing services for folks recently released from prison.
The budget also contains significant investments in increasing the availability of drug and mental health treatment services, including more than $162 million ongoing to expand the Integrated Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program, and $100 million for the provision of mental health services for people involved with the justice system in Los Angeles County. These investments are on top of the $1.5 billion previously proposed by the governor to expand clinically-enhanced bridge housing solutions for people experiencing both homelessness and severe mental illness.
Additionally, the budget contains a record $161.1 million in annual Proposition 47 savings, bringing the total savings since the law went into effect in 2015 to $608 million – money that is reallocated back to local communities to fund programs that address the root causes of crime.
The following can be attributed to Tinisch Hollins, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice: “Gov. Newsom and our legislative leaders are to be commended for agreeing upon a budget for the next fiscal year that prioritizes comprehensive safety solutions. We are in a moment of crisis, with the pandemic having destabilized individuals, families and entire communities. As a result, homicide and other forms of violence, particularly gun violence, are on the rise again after many years of steady declines. The only effective way to respond is by prioritizing the immediate needs of communities and preventing crime and harm in the first place. We know what works and what doesn’t to protect our neighborhoods from harm. Research backs up decades of lived experience that over-reliance on enforcement and incarceration only exacerbates the conditions that create violence and does nothing to actually prevent crime. This can’t be about politics. Ending cycles of crime require us to directly address the root causes. The state’s investments will create opportunities to prevent violence and harm and keep our communities safe.”