Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee on the Judiciary.

I am Devon Brown, Director of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. I appreciate this opportunity to present testimony on the Department of Corrections’ Fiscal Year 2005 Performance.Joining me today is my Deputy Director, Patricia Britton.

Public safety is the highest priority for the Department of Corrections, and we are fully committed to building an agency that will be second to none in municipal detention. Our ability to reach this goal is predicated upon the use of sound operational practices, sufficient funding, and strong support from District governmental leaders, advocacy groups and the community-at-large.

We recognize that we face barriers that are beyond our scope of authority. However, the Department of Corrections has successfully completed a number of significant initiatives in FY 05 that support our overall efforts to establish a safe, secure and orderly environment for staff, inmates and visitors. Our budget for FY 2005 was $128 million, and our overall staffing complement totaled 906 full time employees (FTEs).