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...

Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-2009

Between October 2008 and December 2009, BJS completed the second National Inmate Survey (NIS-2) in 167 state and federal prisons, 286 jails, and 10 special confinement facilities operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Military, and correctional authorities in Indian country. The survey, conducted by RTI International (Research Triangle Park, NC), was administered to 81,566 inmates ages 18 or older, including 32,029 inmates in state and federal prisons, 48,066 in jails, 957 in ICE facilities, 399 in military facilities, and 115 in Indian country jails.

The NIS-2 is part of the National Prison Rape Statistics Program, which collects administrative records of reported sexual violence, and allegations of sexual victimization directly from victims, through surveys of adult inmates in prisons and jails and surveys of youth held in juvenile correctional facilities. Administrative records have been collected annually since 2004. Reports by victims of sexual victimization have been collected since 2007...

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.

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...

Federal Corrections Reports

Find and read reports regarding Federal Corrections; ranging in subject from Capitol Punishment, to Family, Leadership, to Technology and much more...  

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California Out-of-State Correctional Facility Program

Overview of Out-of-State Bed Program

Mission. The California Out-of-State Correctional Facility (COCF) program is administered by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Its mission is to transfer inmates out of state for the purpose of temporarily alleviating overcrowding within existing state prisons.

Number of Inmates. The department currently has 8,021 male inmates housed in fi ve out-of-state facilities. Inmates housed in these facilities are generally highersecurity level inmates. Most inmates have been transferred involuntarily. Inmates with serious medical and mental health issues are generally excluded from the program...

No More Cell Phones

Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted from the Winter 2005 edition of TechBeat, the quarterly news magazine of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center, an NIJ program. Analyses of test results do not represent product approval or endorsement by the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice; the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce; or Aspen Systems Corp. Points of view or opinions contained in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.