Budget Blog

Governors' Budgets for FY2020 - Corrections & Juvenile Justice Priorities

By Leah Wavrunek posted 03-06-2019 12:55 PM

  

As of March 6, all but two states have released their budget recommendations for fiscal 2020. Corrections is one of the larger areas of state spending and is unusual in that most of its funding is derived from the general fund, unlike other program areas like Medicaid or higher education, which receive significant federal funding or other state funding. According to NASBO’s 2018 State Expenditure Report, corrections spending comprised 6.8 percent of total general fund expenditures, while deriving 89.2 percent of its funding from general funds. This issue brief highlights some of the key themes in this program area across governors’ proposed budgets for fiscal 2020. The state examples provided are meant to be illustrative but not exhaustive.