Key Senators Reintroduce Federal Juvenile Justice Legislation

On March 24, Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced juvenile justice legislation similar to the bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee at the end of the last Congress.

This legislation, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2009, S. 678, would reauthorize and make significant improvements to federal law. It builds on efforts begun with the last reauthorization in 2002 to bring child welfare and juvenile justice systems together to improve outcomes for children and youth through improved coordination, procedures and protocols.

The legislation would extend the requirement to remove juveniles from adult jails by making it applicable for the first time to juveniles held pretrial, whether charged in juvenile or adult court, and would strengthen the provisions regarding disproportionate minority confinement. The bill also would strengthen the deinstitutionalization-of-status-offenders requirement by asking all states to phase out and fully eliminate use of the Valid Court Order Exception (which causes nonoffending youth/status offenders to be locked up) and would encourage states to eliminate dangerous practices that are harming youth in confinement and promote adoption of best practices and standards.

Some project passage of this in the Senate within the next few weeks to a month, so continue to watch this blog for updates on progress of the JJDPA re-authorization.

Early Learning Coalition Response to Governor's Budget

WCCF and the Wisconsin Early Learning Coalition support a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for child care in the state budget for 2009-11.

The Coalition supports the Governor’s proposal to invest $2.7 million to build a quality rating system. Tthe Coalition also endorses investing an additional $3 million (at a minimum) to help child care programs improve their programs to meet quality standards established in the QRIS, with $2 million of that total coming from federal stimulus funds already set aside for quality improvement in the state’s Child Care and Development Block Grant. The additional funding would go for enhanced technical assistance, scholarships and wage supplements, and grants or higher payments to programs meeting quality standards.

In addition, the Coalition supports:

* Enhancements to home visiting programs through additional training;
* The Governor’s proposal to increase annual funding for 4-year-old Kindergarten (4K)start-up grants, with priority going to districts with community approaches to 4K delivery; and
* Child care tax credits tied to use of higher quality child care programs

The Early Learning Coalition's full response to the Governor’s budget proposal is online at http://www.greatstartwi.org/pdf/2009-11_budget_position_early_learning_coalition.pdf.

WCCF has produced two informational briefs about key budget 2009-11 budget issues in early care and education.

* Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) describes elements of a QRIS and the potential impacts of an effective system.

* Cost Containment Proposals in Wisconsin Shares examines several proposals to save money in the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy program, including frozen reimbursement rates, attendance-based reimbursements, swipe card systems for collecting attendance data, increased co-payments, establishing waiting lists, and changes in income determination.

WCCF UPDATES PRELIMINARY SUMMARY OF 2009-11 BUDGET

For each biennial budget bill, the Wisconsin Budget Project at WCCF prepares a comprehensive summary that describes the significant budget issues in a variety of areas. It focuses primarily on issues relating to children and families, but also describes the various measures being used to balance the budget. We prepared such a document about two weeks ago (based on the Dept. of Administration’s budget descriptions) and have now updated our summary with additional information from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The WCCF summary includes information about more than 100 measures in the budget bill and references to where to find more detailed information about each of those items in the 706-page Fiscal Bureau summary or in other budget documents. We will follow each of those issues as the budget process continues and will update the summary at each stage of the legislative process. You can find our budget summary at: http://www.wccf.org/pdf/budget_summary_2009-11_analysis_AB75.pdf

On March 20, WCCF presented an hour-long webinar about the proposed budget. That webcast can be found online at http://mediasite.ics.uwex.edu/mediasite5/Viewer/?peid=e41257a052bd4dbf844c4b1ca60349aa.

Joint Finance Hearings Commence

Today marked the first of six Joint Finance Committee budget hearings. Joint Finance began their day at the American Legion Hall in Sparta at 10 AM. On Wednesday, they will travel to State Fair Park in West Allis, and on Friday they will be at UW-Eau Claire. WCCF has all the Joint Finance Statewide Budget hearing locations and times on the Budget Essentials page of our website (scroll down to "Hearings").

The Wheeler Report and Wispolitics.com have people reporting from the actual hearings. You can get their updates at http://blogs.wispolitics.com/budget/ and http://www.thewheelerreport.com/. Also, WisconsinEye is videotaping all of the hearings and will post the video one to two days after the hearing.

OJA Announces New Juvenile Justice Grant Opportunities

The Office of Justice Assistance has just announced the availability of two grant opportunities in the juvenile justice area. They are:

(1) Juvenile Offender Substance Abuse and/or Mental Health Program Grants (Non-Direct Juvenile Accountability Grant program)– approximately $275,000 will be available to fund new grants to establish and/or maintain programs to conduct risk and needs assessments that facilitate early intervention and the provision of comprehensive services to juvenile offenders. Concept Paper is due April 14.

(2) Alternatives to Secure Detention for Juvenile Status Offenders (Formula Grant program) – approximately $215,000 will be available to fund new grants for projects, research, or other initiatives to eliminate or prevent the placement of accused or adjudicated status offenders and non-offenders in secure detention facilities. Concept Paper is due April 21.

For more information, deadlines, and application materials go to the Juvenile Justice page of the OJA website.

Huffington Post Piece on Health Care by Gov. Doyle

Interesting piece on health care by Gov. Doyle on the Huffington Post last week. Sure, it's his job to toot his state's own horn, but he makes some important points in this post. In addition to laying out the case for addressing the nationwide health care crisis, Gov. Doyle focuses on the importance of investing in preventive care and other cost-saving measures. He notes that while other states are cutting back on health care programs in the face of budget problems, Wisconsin continues to expand ours, as the state continues to invest in our innovative programs like BadgerCare Plus and SeniorCare. He points out that these are important investments on both the moral and financial levels, arguing that covering children and families is a worthy goal in itself, but also that there is money to be saved by eliminating barriers and simplifying enrollment for these programs, so people are able to get the care they need before their health problems worsen and get more expensive to treat. In other words, Wisconsin continues to be a national leader on health care because it is both a moral and fiscal imperative.

Life Without Parole Passes the Test for the Wisconsin Appeals Court

On March 3 the Wisconsin Court of Appeals concluded that a life sentence without possibility of parole for a 14-year-old homicide defendant does not violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Roper v. Simmons that offenders under the age of 18 cannot be subject to the death penalty, the state Appeals court concluded in this case (Wisconsin v. Ninham) that life without parole does not violate constitutional provisions against cruel and unusual punishment. As we continue to learn more about the adolescent brain, we hope the courts will give greater consideration to the realities of adolescent development. A significant body of research strongly suggests that harsh sentences for young offenders are often counterproductive, and do not serve the best interests of the community. A troubled teenager--even one who has committed a serious crime--has a good chance of maturing into a responsible adult capable of making a positive contribution. Going to prison for life at age 14 eliminates that possibility.

BadgerCare Plus Coverage of Childless Adults

The budget repair bill signed into law on February 19, 2009, contains funding to allow the state to proceed with plans to offer basic health insurance coverage for low-income adults without dependent children, beginning on July 1, 2009. We have just updated our short paper about this development. The paper describes the need for coverage of childless adults, provides a short summary of the new coverage, and contains links to other resources.