LAO Report: Overview of the May Revision (2012-2013 Budget)

In the May Revision of his 2012-13 budget proposal, the Governor identified a larger budget problem of $15.7 billion for state leaders to address in the coming weeks. While we find that the administration's economic and revenue forecasts are reasonable, we are concerned that the amount of property tax revenues from former redevelopment agencies (RDAs) may be substantially less than the May Revision assumes in 2011-12 and 2012-13. If so, this could increase the state's Proposition 98 school funding obligations and, therefore, the size of the budget problem above administration estimates. Moreover, the administration's $1.4 billion estimate for the amount of General Fund benefit that may be achieved in 2012-13 from transferring former RDAs' liquid cash assets to school districts is highly uncertain.

We advise the Legislature to focus on adopting realistic and ongoing budget actions to continue the progress the state has made in reducing its annual operating, or structural, deficit. We describe and assess the administration's major May Revision proposals. In some cases, we offer alternative ways to achieve the savings targeted by the Governor. With regard to Proposition 98, we offer alternatives to both the Governor's basic budget plan and his trigger plan.

LAO Report: State Should Consider Less Costly Alternatives to CDCR Blueprint

In April 2012, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) released a report (referred to as the “blueprint”) on the administration’s plan to reorganize various aspects of CDCR operations, facilities, and budgets in response to the effects of the 2011 realignment of adult offenders, as well as to meet various federal court requirements (such as reducing the inmate population to meet specified population cap targets). In this brief we (1) summarize and assess the major aspects of the blueprint and (2) present alternative approaches that are available to the Legislature. In our view, much of the administration’s blueprint merits legislative consideration.

However, the General Fund costs of the planned approach—in particular, an estimated $78 million in annual debt service—is a significant trade-off. We find that the state could meet its facility requirements (including those for medical and mental health treatment) and specified population cap targets at much lower ongoing General Fund costs than proposed by the administration, potentially saving the state as much as a billion dollars over the next seven years...
 

THE FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA CORRECTIONS

A Blueprint to Save Billions of Dollars, End Federal Court Oversight, and Improve the Prison System

For years, California’s prison system has faced costly and seemingly endless challenges. Decades-old class-action lawsuits challenge the adequacy of critical parts of its operations, including its health care system, its parole-revocation process, and its ability to accommodate inmates with disabilities. In one case, a federal court seized control over the prison medical care system and appointed a Receiver to manage its operations. The Receiver remains in place today...

LAO Report: Providing Constitutional and Cost-Effective Inmate Medical Care

Inmate Medical Program Under Federal Receivership. In 2006, after finding that California had failed to provide a constitutional level of medical care to its inmates, a federal court appointed a Receiver to take over the direct management and operation of the state’s inmate medical care program from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Since that time, the current and prior Receiver have taken a variety of actions that appear to have increased the quality of inmate medical care but also dramatically increased state expenditures. The increased cost of the inmate medical care program is partially attributable to several inefficiencies including its (1) inconsistent application of the utilization management system, (2) limited use of telemedicine, and (3) an inefficient management structure...

Summary of LAO Findings and Recommendations on the 2012-13 Budget

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Personnel Specialist Staffing Ratios

Reduce CDCRs funding for Personnel Specialists I (PSI) and Personnel Specialist Supervisors (PSS) by $13.1 million in the budget year. This adjustment would provide CDCR with PSI positions on a 300 to 1 ratio and PSS positions on a 5 to 1 ratio, both of which are more consistent with other large state departments...

Governor’s Proposal to Complete Juvenile Justice Realignment

The Governor's Proposal:

Fully Realign Juvenile Justice to Counties. The DJJ would stop receiving new wards on January 1, 2013, though DJJ would continue to house wards admitted to its facilities prior to this date until they are released. After all wards are released from DJJ, counties would be responsible for managing all offenders adjudicated in juvenile courts.

Provide Funding to Counties. The Governor proposes to provide counties with an unspecified amount of ongoing funding beginning in 2013-14 to help them manage the increase in juvenile caseload resulting from the realignment. The Governor also proposes a one-time $10 million General Fund augmentation in 2011-12 to help counties plan for their increased caseload.

Delay Collection of Enacted Fees. Current law requires counties, as of January 1, 2012, to reimburse the state $125,000 per year for each juvenile offender committed by the courts to DJJ. The Governor has delayed the collection of these fees, and proposes to continue delaying collection for an unspecified period, perhaps indefinitely. The administration estimates that this provision would have benefited the General Fund by $60 million in 2011-12 and $125 million in 2012-13...

The 2012–13 Budget: Refocusing CDCR After The 2011 Realignment

In 2011, the state enacted several bills to realign to county governments the responsibility for certain felon offenders who previously had been eligible for state prison and parole. These changes will significantly reduce the inmate and parole populations managed by CDCR. This report identifies the impacts of the realignment of adult offenders on CDCR's operations and facility needs, discusses whether realignment will enable the state to meet the prison population limit required by the federal court, as well as whether the change in the makeup of CDCR's inmate population following realignment will affect its housing, mental health, and medical facility needs. The report provides recommendations on how to better match CDCR facilities and programs with the remaining inmate population following the realignment...

The 2012-13 Budget: The 2011 Realignment of Adult Offenders—An Update

In 2011, the state enacted several bills to enact a wide-ranging “realignment,” shifting several state programs and a commensurate level of revenues to local governments.

Perhaps the most significant programmatic change implemented as part of the 2011 realignment was realigning to county governments the responsibility for managing and supervising certain felon offenders who previously had been eligible for state prison and parole.

This report provides an update on the status of realignment, reviews changes proposed by the Governor, and makes several recommendations designed to promote the long-term success of realignment, such as creating a reserve fund for revenue growth as well as designing an ongoing allocation formula that is responsive to future demographic changes...

2012-2013 LAO Report: Completing Juvenile Justice Realignment

Over the past 16 years, the Legislature has enacted various measures which realigned to counties a significant share of responsibility for managing juvenile offenders. Under current law, only juveniles adjudicated for a serious, violent, or sex offense can be sent to state facilities by the juvenile courts. As a result, 99 percent of juvenile offenders are housed or supervised by counties.

Juvenile Justice Realignment in 2012

By Brian Heller de Leon

Policy and Government Outreach Coordinator, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice

Selena Teji, J.D. Communications Specialist, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice

“The purpose of this publication is to recommend a full juvenile justice realignment plan in the 2012-13 budget cycle. The Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) budget triggers implemented on January 1, 2012, highlight the unsustainable costs of maintaining a dual juvenile justice system in California.

DJF’s current recidivism rate of 80% and continued scrutiny under the Farrell lawsuit both demonstrate the limited success the state has at rehabilitating youthful offenders (CDCR, 2010, p.10).”

RAND: new report on CA prisoner re-entry

When prisoners are released and return to communities, an often overlooked concern is the health care needs that former prisoners have and the role that health care plays in how successfully they reintegrate. To a large extent, the reentry population will eventually become part of the uninsured and medically indigent populations in communities.

This volume examines the health care needs of newly released prisoners in California, including the need for mental health and substance abuse treatment; which communities are most affected by prisoner reentry; the health care system capacity of those communities; and the experiences of released prisoners, service providers, and families of incarcerated individuals. The authors conducted a geographic analysis to identify where parolees are concentrated in California and the capacity of the safety net in four of these communities — Alameda, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Kern counties — to meet the health care needs of the reentry population. They then conducted focus groups in Alameda, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties with former prisoners and their family members and interviews with relevant service providers and community groups to better understand how health affects reentry; the critical roles that health care providers, other social services, and family members play in successful reentry; and how the children and families of ex-prisoners are affected by reentry. The authors discuss all this in the context of budget cuts that have substantially shrunk California's safety net and the May 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering California to reduce its prison population by 33,000. The volume concludes with recommendations for improving access to care for this population in the current fiscal environment.

View an overview of the report here: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1165.html

View the full 252 page report here: RAND_MG1165.pdf

Read a shorter 23-page summary of the report here: RAND_MG1165.sum.pdf

* Note: All links open in a new window via www.rand.org.

California’s Fiscal Outlook: The 2012-13 Budget

The Legislative Analyst's Office has just issued the following report:

California’s Fiscal Outlook: The 2012-13 Budget

Our updated assessment of California’s economy and revenues indicates that General Fund revenues and transfers in 2011-12 will be $3.7 billion below the level assumed in the June budget package. This revenue shortfall would translate into $2 billion of potential “trigger cuts” to various state programs—including all of the “Tier 1” trigger cuts and three-fourths of the “Tier 2” trigger cuts. (The Director of Finance will determine the actual amount of trigger cuts next month.)

We forecast that the state will end 2011-12 with a $3 billion deficit, including the effects of the trigger cuts that could result from our revenue forecast. In 2012-13, we forecast that the state will face increased costs due to the expiration of a number of temporary budget measures, a significant increase in Proposition 98 school costs under current law, the required repayment of a $2 billion Proposition 1A property tax loan used to help balance the budget in 2009, and other factors. These factors contribute to a projected $10 billion operating shortfall (the difference between annual General Fund revenues and expenditures) in 2012-13. The $3 billion “carry-in” deficit from 2011-12 and the projected $10 billion operating deficit in 2012-13 mean that the Legislature and the Governor will need to address an approximately $13 billion budget problem between now and the time that the state adopts a 2012-13 budget plan. (50 pp.)

This report available using the following link: http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=2539

You can download and view the .pdf file of the report below.

In addition, click the lao.ca.gov link to see three videos summarizing the report. Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor provides an overview and Deputy Jennifer Kuhn discusses Proposition 98. Deputy Jason Sisney explains the revenue and economic outlook.

Audit: Effectiveness of COMPAS

As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report concerning the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations’ (Corrections) use of the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS), which is a software tool that helps to identify the characteristics that cause offenders to commit crimes so they can participate in rehabilitative programs and thereby lessen their likelihood of reoffending. Our report concludes that the benefits from Corrections’ use of COMPAS are, at best, uncertain.

Specifically, Corrections’ use of COMPAS in its reception centers—facilities where inmates entering the correctional system are evaluated and assigned to a prison—does not meaningfully affect its decision‑making concerning prison assignments, and by extension, the rehabilitative programs inmates might access at those facilities. Our discussions with staff from eight of Corrections’ 12 reception centers revealed that other non-COMPAS factors, such as an inmate’s security level and limited bed space at receiving prisons, play more prominent roles in determining where inmates can be housed...

2011 Realignment Report (LAO)

As part of the 2011-12 budget plan, the Legislature enacted a major shift—or “realignment”—of state program responsibilities

and revenues to local governments. In total, the realignment plan provides $6.3 billion to local governments (primarily counties) to fund various criminal justice, mental health, and social services programs in 2011-12, and ongoing funds for these programs annually thereafter...

Special Report: CDCR Implementation of the Non-Revocable Parole Program

Findings in Brief

The Office of the Inspector General finds that:

• The Automated CSRA Instrument Inaccurately Assesses a Number of Offenders
• The Automated CSRA Instrument Uses Incomplete Conviction Data
• The Automated CSRA Instrument Inconsistently Applies Juvenile Data when Calculating Risk Assessment Scores
• CDCR’s Initial Policy Regarding Juveniles Convicted of Serious or Violent Felonies was Incorrect

LAO analysis of pension reduction initiative

This is the summary from LAO:

This measure provides that public employee defined pension benefits in California can only allow for "full retirement ages" of 62 years of age or older. This provision of the measure states that it would apply to public employees who are employed on the day after this measure is approved by the state's voters, notwithstanding the Contract Clause of the State Constitution.

Accountability Audit Review of CDCR (2010-2011)

This comprehensive accountability audit presents the results of the Office of the Inspector General’s annual follow-up of previous audit and special review recommendations issued to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Prison Health Care Services (CPHCS). In this accountability audit, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) assesses CDCR’s and CPHCS’ progress in implementing past recommendations from nine audits and special reviews affecting CDCR. We found that CDCR implemented 61 (or 82 percent) of the 74 recommendations we made that were still applicable and that were counted in our assessment. In addition, we separately made three recommendations to CPHCS in one of the nine reports and found that CPHCS implemented two (or 67 percent) of those recommendations...

C-ROB March 2011 Bi-Annual Report

Pursuant to Penal Code section 6141, the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board (C-ROB or the board) is mandated to regularly examine and report biannually to the Governor and the Legislature regarding rehabilitative programming provided to inmates and parolees by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (the department).

C-ROB held its first meeting on June 19, 2007.

According to statute, C-ROB must submit reports on March 15 and September 15 to the Governor and the Legislature...

Medical Inspection - CIW (March 2011)

Enclosed is the Office of the Inspector General's final report on its second inspection of medical care delivery at the California Institution for Women. The purpose of our inspection was to evaluate and monitor the progress of medical care delivery to inmates at the institution.

The report finds that based on our weighted scoring system encompassing 19 components, the California Institution for Women received 77.5 percent of the total weighted points possible.  This is a 7.9 percentage point improvement over the score of 69.6 percent from our first inspection of this prison issued in November 2009...

Medical Inspection - CSP-Sacramento (February 2011)

Enclosed is the Office of the Inspector General's final report on its second inspection of medical care delivery at the California State Prison, Sacramento. The purpose of our inspection was to evaluate and monitor the progress of medical care delivery to inmates at the institution.

The report finds that based on our weighted scoring system encompassing 19 components, the California State Prison, Sacramento received 76.3 percent of the total weighted points possible.  This is a 11.1 percentage point improvement over the score of 65.2 percent from our first inspection of this prison issued in November 2008...