2021 House Bill 4396

Corrections: 2021-22 Department of Corrections budget

Introduced in the House

March 2, 2021

Introduced by Rep. Bradley Slagh (R-90)

To provide a template or "place holder" for a potential Department of Corrections budget in the 2021-2022 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2021. This bill contains nominal appropriations only, but may be amended at a later date to include real ones.

Referred to the Committee on Appropriations

May 11, 2021

Reported without amendment

With the recommendation that the substitute (H-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

May 12, 2021

Amendment offered by Rep. Mike Mueller (R-51)

To add $300,000 for a certain program.

The amendment passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Tyrone Carter (D-6)

To require the department to report the number of prisoners kept in cells for 20 hours or more per day in the previous fiscal year, by facility, including cell type, prisoner race, and number of days in that cell type.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Stephanie Young (D-8)

To require the Corrections department to adopt a system that lets inmate telephone calls cost no more than calls placed from outside the prison. The cost of prisoner phone calls has been a complaint for many years.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Passed in the House 65 to 42 (details)

The House version of the Department of Corrections budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2021. This would appropriate $2.077 billion in gross spending, of which $808 million is federal money.

Received in the Senate

May 13, 2021

Referred to the Committee of the Whole

May 19, 2021

Passed in the Senate 20 to 16 (details)

To send the bill back to the House "stripped" of all actual appropriations except $100 “placeholders.” This is part of a process for reconciling the House and Senate-passed department budgets for the next fiscal year.

Received in the House

May 19, 2021

May 26, 2021

Failed in the House 0 to 109 (details)

To concur with the Senate-passed version of the bill. The failed vote is a procedural device used for launching negotiations over the differences between the House and Senate budgets, and eventually for negotiating a final budget between a Republican-controlled legislature and a Democratic governor.