The American Civil Liberties Union is among those raising questions about federal Covid aid from the American Rescue Plan Act going to corrections projects.
State and local governments that directed federal Covid relief funding toward jail and prison costs are under fire from civil rights advocates.
The American Civil Liberties Union last week urged the Treasury Department’s Inspector General to require states and counties that used hundreds of millions of dollars of American Rescue Plan Act aid to build or expand prisons and jails to shift those funds toward expenses more directly related to fallout from the public health crisis.
Treasury’s inspector general’s office has said that a county in Iowa could use the Covid relief funds to expand a juvenile detention facility because governments are allowed to use ARPA money to backfill revenue lost during the pandemic. And under that revenue replacement category they have a great deal of flexibility to spend the funding as they choose.
Route Fifty
by Kery Murakami
JAN 26, 2023