Human Services & Public Safety Committee

Among states’ most pressing concerns are ensuring the public’s general welfare and protection, with both areas constituting increasing shares of state budgets. States have been taking the lead in health policy, welfare reform and child care, and have maintained their predominant role in the areas of public safety, corrections and sentencing. The Human Services & Public Safety Committee has a broad agenda which most typically addresses the challenges states face in the areas of human services and corrections, and policies and programs utilized to meet them. Most recently the Committee has undertaken assessments of Medicaid and reform; the nursing shortage; long-term health care; the Children’s Health Insurance Program; and such corrections issues as criminal justice DNA statutes; the aging inmate population; female offenders; sentencing reform and prison staffing in Southern states.