FISCAL NOTE

House Bill 361 as introduced clarifies the current requirement that the Department of Corrections (DOC) in conjunction with the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall assist inmates in obtaining a non-driver identification card upon release from DOC custody. In addition, this bill requires DOC to provide a birth certificate to each inmate released. Based upon the average number of inmates released from DOC’s custody over the past four fiscal years, this bill would increase the obligations of the DOC by an estimated average of $138,000 annually for DOC to provide a birth certificate to every inmate released from the department’s custody, assuming DOC is required to pay the $15 Vital Records search fee to the Department of Public Health (ADPH) for birth certificate search.

Further, this bill would correspondingly increase the administrative obligations of ADPH by an undetermined to provide inmate birth certificates, as provided by this bill; however, those obligations would be offset, in whole or in part, by the $15 search fee charged for each birth certificate search, assuming DOC is required to pay this fee.