Audit: Effect of CDCR Operations on the State Budget

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation:

Inmates Sentenced Under the Three Strikes Law and a Small Number of Inmates Receiving Specialty Health Care Represent Significant Costs

HIGHLIGHTS

Our review of California's increasing prison cost as a proportion of the state budget and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (Corrections) operations revealed the  following:

• Inmates incarcerated under the three strikes law (striker inmates):
  • Make up 25 percent of the inmate population as of April 2009.
  • Receive sentences that are, on average, nine years longer-resulting in about $19.2 billion in additional costs over the duration of their incarceration.
  • Include many individuals currently convicted for an offense that is not a strike, were convicted of committing multiple serious or violent offenses on the same day, and some that committed strikeable offenses as a juvenile.
• Inmate health care costs are significant to the cost of housing inmates. In fiscal year 2007-08, $529 million was incurred for contracted services by specialty health care providers. Additionally:
  • 30 percent of the inmates receiving such care cost more than $427 million.
  • The costs for the remaining 70 percent averaged just over $1,000 per inmate.
  • The costs for those inmates who died during the last quarter ranged from $150 for one inmate to more than $1 million for another
• A significant portion of the increased workload due to medical guarding and transportation is covered through overtime.
• The large leave balances of custody staff, to which the furlough program has contributed a significant amount, will eventually cost the State from $546 million to more than $1 billion.

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Elderly Inmates in California Prisons

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the percentage of inmates over the age of 55 has more than doubled over the past decade, from 3 percent (or about 4,900 inmates) in 2000, to 8 percent (or about 13,600 inmates) in 2010.

The department projects that the percentage of inmates over the age of 55 will continue to increase over the next few years to about 12 percent of the prison population by 2015.

2010 CCPOA Elections Forms & Schedule

Attached please see below for the the Schedule of Elections for Chapters in 2010 for due dates, deadlines and activities within the 2010 CCPOA elections process.

Additionally, the EC Intent to Run form for 2010 is available below, as well as the 2010 Sample Ballots. 

(Updated 9/14/2010)