[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4055 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4055

To authorize a national HOPE Program to reduce drug use, crime, and the 
                        costs of incarceration.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 6, 2009

Mr. Schiff (for himself and Mr. Poe of Texas) introduced the following 
       bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To authorize a national HOPE Program to reduce drug use, crime, and the 
                        costs of incarceration.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Honest Opportunity Probation with 
Enforcement (HOPE) Initiative Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Crime continues to inflict a severe cost on victims and 
        communities across the country.
            (2) Criminal apprehension and punishment similarly impose 
        substantial costs on taxpayers, with States spending over 
        $50,000,000,000 on corrections in fiscal year 2008, accounting 
        for 1 in every 15 State general fund dollars.
            (3) A substantial amount of crime, and a substantial share 
        of prison occupancy, is directly tied to illicit drug 
        consumption. A relatively small group of chronic drug users 
        consumes the vast majority of cocaine, heroin, and 
        methamphetamine in the United States, and approximately three-
        quarters of this group pass through the criminal justice system 
        at some point. Consequently, reducing drug consumption in the 
        United States requires effectively addressing the drug habits 
        of supervised offenders.
            (4) One in 100 adults is behind bars, and 1 in 31 is under 
        some form of criminal justice supervision, including probation 
        and parole. Of the 7,300,000 individuals in the United States 
        who are under criminal justice supervision, the majority 
        (4,300,000) are serving a term of probation in their 
        communities, in lieu of serving time behind bars.
            (5) The failure of individuals serving terms of probation 
        to successfully complete such terms is a major contributor to 
        prison admissions. In 2007, more than 250,000 such individuals 
        were admitted to prison. Consequently, controlling drug use by 
        individuals who are serving a period of probation reduces both 
        national drug consumption and crime rates, and reduces taxpayer 
        burdens.
            (6) Innovations in offender supervision prove that swift, 
        certain, and graduated sanctions for noncompliance can reduce 
        drug use, new crimes, and revocation to incarceration.
            (7) Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) 
        initiative, an offender supervision program to reduce probation 
        violations by drug and other high-risk offenders using a 
        structured sanctions model, has been shown to be highly 
        successful at reducing drug use, crime, and recidivism.
            (8) According to an article in the Journal of the American 
        Medical Association in August of 2009, if the HOPE initiative 
        was replicated effectively in multiple jurisdictions, the 
        program might have broader benefits beyond assisting 
        probationer participants at risk for heavy drug use, such as 
        helping to shrink the market for illegal drugs and the profits 
        of drug trafficking organizations.

SEC. 3. HOPE INITIATIVE GRANTS.

    (a) Program Established.--
            (1) In general.--The Attorney General may establish a 
        competitive demonstration grant program to award grants to 
        State, tribal, and local courts to establish probation programs 
        that reduce drug use, crime, and recidivism by requiring swift, 
        predictable, and graduated sanctions for noncompliance with the 
        conditions of probation, as determined by the Attorney General.
            (2) Number and selection of grants.--
                    (A) Number.--The Attorney General shall have the 
                discretion to award not more than 20 grants under this 
                section.
                    (B) Selection.--The Attorney General shall ensure 
                that such grants are awarded in a manner that promotes 
                the strongest proposals, evaluation designs, and 
                geographic diversity of the demonstration programs 
                under this section.
    (b) Application.--To be eligible for a grant under this section, a 
State, tribal, or local court shall, in addition to any other 
requirements required by the Attorney General, submit to the Attorney 
General an application that--
            (1) describes the program to be assisted under this section 
        and the need for such program;
            (2) describes a long-term strategy and detailed 
        implementation plan for such program, including how the entity 
        plans to pay for the program after the Federal funding is 
        discontinued;
            (3) certifies that all government entities affected by the 
        program have been appropriately consulted in the development of 
        the program and that there will be appropriate coordination 
        with all such entities in the implementation of the program;
            (4) identifies the key partners that will be included in 
        the program, including the Chief Judge of the court of the 
        relevant jurisdiction and other participating judges in such 
        jurisdiction, State court administrator, probation and parole 
        administrators, jail and prison administrators, prosecutors, 
        public defenders and defense attorneys, and sheriff or police 
        administrators; and
            (5) includes an assurance that the applicant will--
                    (A) collect key process measures, including the 
                number of individuals enrolled in the program, the 
                frequency of drug testing of such individuals, the 
                certainty of sanctions for a violation of the terms of 
                probation, the average period of time from detection of 
                a violation to issuance of a sanction for such 
                violation, and sanction severity;
                    (B) conduct an unbiased comparison of the outcomes 
                between program participants and similarly situated 
                probationers not in the program, including the positive 
                and negative drug test rates, probation and substance 
                abuse treatment appearance rates, probation term 
                modifications, revocations, arrests, time spent in jail 
                or prison, and total correctional costs incurred; and
                    (C) partner with an independent program advisor and 
                evaluator, who will assist the applicant with designing 
                the demonstration program to be carried out with the 
                grant, identifying the appropriate comparison group for 
                the comparison required under subparagraph (A), and 
                measuring relevant outcomes for such comparison.
    (c) Grant Uses.--A grant awarded under this section shall be used 
by the grantee to establish probation programs that--
            (1) identify for enrollment in the program individuals who 
        are serving a term of probation and who are at high risk of 
        failing to observe the conditions of supervision and of being 
        returned to incarceration as a result of such failure;
            (2) notify probationers of the rules of the probation 
        demonstration program, and consequences for violating such 
        rules;
            (3) monitor probationers for illicit drug use with regular 
        and rapid-result drug screening;
            (4) monitor probationers for violations of other rules and 
        probation terms, including failure to pay court-ordered 
        financial obligations such as child support or victim 
        restitution;
            (5) respond to violations of such rules with immediate 
        arrest of the violating probationer, and swift and certain 
        modification of the conditions of probation, including 
        imposition of short jail stays (which may gradually become 
        longer with each additional violation and modification);
            (6) immediately respond to probationers who have absconded 
        from supervision with service of bench warrants and immediate 
        sanctions;
            (7) provide rewards to probationers who comply with such 
        rules;
            (8) ensure funding for, and referral to, substance abuse 
        treatment for probationers who repeatedly fail to refrain from 
        illicit drugs use;
            (9) establish procedures to terminate program participation 
        by, and initiate revocation to a term of incarceration for, 
        probationers who habitually fail to abide by program rules and 
        pose a threat to public safety; and
            (10) include regular coordination meetings for the key 
        partners of the demonstration program, including the partners 
        identified in the grant application in accordance with 
        subsection (b)(4).
    (d) Determination of Program Savings.--
            (1) Grantee savings and reinvestment.--Each court receiving 
        a grant under this section shall--
                    (A) not later than 12 months after an initial grant 
                award under this section, and annually thereafter 
                through the end of the grant period, calculate the 
                amount of cost savings, if any, resulting from the 
                reduced incarceration achieved through such grant 
                program; and
                    (B) report to the Attorney General--
                            (i) the amount calculated under 
                        subparagraph (A); and
                            (ii) the portion of such amount, if any, 
                        that will be reinvested for expansion of such 
                        grant program.
            (2) Evaluation, guidance, and recommendations.--The 
        Attorney General shall--
                    (A) annually evaluate--
                            (i) the methods used by courts to calculate 
                        the cost savings reported under paragraph (1); 
                        and
                            (ii) the use of such savings by the courts 
                        to reinvest for expansion of the grant program; 
                        and
                    (B) provide guidance, assistance, and 
                recommendations to such courts relating to the 
                potential reinvestment of such savings for expansion of 
                such grant program.
    (e) Evaluation Coordinator.--The Attorney General shall select an 
entity to serve as the HOPE initiative evaluation coordinator to--
            (1) analyze and provide feedback on the measures and 
        outcomes the individual HOPE initiative demonstration programs 
        are required to collect and conduct, respectively, in 
        accordance with subsection (b)(5);
            (2) ensure consistent tracking of the progress of the 
        demonstration programs carried out under this section, 
        including such measures and outcomes; and
            (3) ensure that the aggregate data from all such 
        demonstration programs is available to each of the programs and 
        the Attorney General.
    (f) Annual Report.--The Attorney General shall annually report to 
Congress on the results of the HOPE initiative carried out under this 
section.
    (g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated for grants awarded under this section $25,000,000 for each 
of fiscal years 2010 through 2014, of which not more than $500,000 
shall be available to the Attorney General in each fiscal year for 
coordination activities necessary to carry out this section.
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