The Legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:

(a) Community-based punishment programs require a partnership between the state and local government to provide and expand the use of intermediate sanctions for specifically targeted offender populations.

(b) Community-based programs must operate to punish offenders while at the same time providing opportunities to change behavior.

(c) Community-based punishment programs provide appropriate means of managing select offenders but should not be viewed as the only solution to prison overcrowding.

(d) Community-based punishment programs target prison-bound and jail-bound nonviolent offenders because this group poses the least risk to the public and is the most amenable to the individualized programming and services offered by community-based programs.

(e) Community-based punishment programs emphasize reducing local jail populations, thereby making jail space available for new commitments, parole violators, and probation violators who are now being sent to jail and nonviolent felons who have already been sent to prison for short periods of time.

(f) Community-based punishment programs must be financed from a consistent, reliable, and separate funding source.

(g) Community-based punishment programs should be expanded incrementally with a variety of pilot approaches tested to determine their effectiveness prior to expansion.

(h) In order to effectively utilize available resources, to ensure appropriate management of the local offender population, each county utilizing community-based punishment programs must implement a locally coordinated planning process.

(i) Since successful community-based punishment programs are dependent on the coordinated efforts of, and successful working relationships between, state and local agencies, the Board of Corrections is the logical state agency to coordinate community punishment efforts because of its extensive experience with collaborative state and local programs.

(Added by Stats. 1994, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 41, Sec. 4. Effective November 30, 1994.)