CCPOA Weekly Update: January 20, 2012

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).”

Remember: Flu Vaccinations Are Optional!

It's that time of year again, when we are hit with the decision "To Vaccinate against the Flu" or "Not".  The signs are posted everywhere: Walmart, Walgreens, Costco, Target and CDCR. Unlike your local retail establishment who has the choice whether to offer flu vaccinations to their patrons, CDCR is mandated by Title 8, Section 5199 to offer all of their employees free seasonal flu vaccinations...

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.

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...

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

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...

CDCR Flu Vaccinations - It’s Optional!

While CDCR is mandated to offer all of their employees free seasonal flu vaccinations, participation in this program is STRICTLY VOLUNTARY and YOU WILL NOT BE DISCIPLINED for declining to get vaccinated, but you MUST fill out one of the attached forms.

Medical Inspection - Wasco (November 2010)

Enclosed is the Office of the Inspector General's final report on its second inspection of medical care delivery at the Wasco State Prison. 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 17 components, the California State Prison, Sacramento received 75.9 percent of the total weighted points possible...

California Rehabilitation Oversight Board 2010 Biannual 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. These biannual reports must minimally include findings on...

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.

Continue Reading...

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.

Substance Abuse Treatment Programs in the Criminal Justice System

Three Major Types of Substance Treatment Programs for Offenders:

• Community-Based Diversion Programs. Programs provided to offenders in the community in lieu of prison or a jail sentence.
• In-Prison Programs. Programs provided to offenders while in state prison.
• Parolee Programs. Programs provided to parolees in the community, mostly on a voluntary basis, upon release from prison.

Proposition 36 Programs

Overview. Proposition 36 (the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000) changed state law so that certain adult offenders who use or possess illegal drugs are sentenced to participate in drug treatment and supervision in the community rather than being sentenced to prison or jail...

Reducing the Ward and Parolee Populations at the Division of Juvenile Facilities

Overview of Division of Juvenile Facilities

Background. The Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF), the statutory name for the agency often referred to as the Division of Juvenile Justice, is responsible for the housing, supervision, and rehabilitation of individuals that have been committed to their custody. As a result of Chapter 175, Statutes of 2007 (SB 81, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), only juveniles who are violent, serious, or sex offenders are committed to DJF.

Characteristics of Wards. As of December 31, 2009, about 1,600 wards (generally ages 13 to 25, average age of 19) reside in DJF institutions. Males comprise about 95 percent of the ward population. Latinos account for roughly 60 percent of the total population, while African-Americans make up about 30 percent of the population. Whites and other races make up the remaining 10 percent.

Juvenile Facilities. The DJF is comprised of fi ve youth correctional facilities and two camps. Recently, DJF closed the Herman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino...

A Letter to Matt Cate

Dear Mr. Cate:

This letter is written on behalf of all the men and women that work for you in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations that are represented by Bargaining Unit 6.

In opening, we feel compelled to refresh your memory regarding the furloughing of Unit 6 members. On or about December 19, 2008, the Governor issued Executive Order S-16-08 directing State agencies to furlough employees for two days per month. On or about July 9, 2009 the Governor added a third furlough day via Executive Order S-13-09. These Executive Orders contained "limited" exemptions but also specifically exempted those who provide "service and functions of state government directly related to the preservation and protectionof human life and safety."

 ...continued in attached document  

Informational: CDCR, Local Government Financing

LAO Compromise

• Results in an additional $112.1 million in General Fund... savings relative to Assembly version.
• Funds only programs that have demonstrated effectiveness at improving public safety.
• Recognized the availability of special funds to support programs.
• Eliminates programs that are primarily a local responsibility.

Special Review: California Prison Health Care Receivership 2007-2008

Special Review of California Prison Health Care Receivership Corporation Use of State Funds for Fiscal Year 2007-2008 as conducted by David R. Shaw, Inspector General of the California Office of the Inspector General (OIG): Our review found that the receivership spent $51.2 million during the year for its operating costs and long-term capital assets purchased on behalf of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This amount represents four percent of the $1.4 billion spent in fiscal year 2007-2008 to provide medical care to CDCR's adult inmate population. The largest expense category was capital assets, for which the receivership spent $28.7 million. In addition, the receivership spent $13.5 million on professional fees, $7.3 million on employee compensation and benefits, and $1.7 million on other expenses and travel...