Designating DOJ as lead agency for all foreign prosecutions would enhance law enforcement coordination efforts between foreign governments and California. Requiring local governments to pay for crime lab services and prosecution in conflict of interest cases would properly align local government's funding and programmatic responsibilities for investigation and prosecution of criminal cases.
Foreign prosecution—see our 1997-98 Analysis, page D-179.
Crime lab services—see our 1999-00 Analysis, page D-133.
Legal work in conflict of interest cases—see our
1988-89 Analysis, page 53.
Melissa Tanner: 319-8343
Privatize the Prison Industry Authority (PIA) as an independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Focus PIA on providing job training and other services aimed at preventing second-strike offenders from coming back to state prison with 25-years-to-life third-strike sentences. Also, enact other changes to restructure PIA management, improve fiscal accountability, do away with protected markets, establish clear rules for competition, allow for new private partnerships, and measure mission performance.
Following a number of years of poor financial performance, the PIA has improved, but the state continues to receive a poor return on its more than $100 million contribution in buildings and equipment for the program. The PIA's progress has been hampered by an ever-shifting and muddled mission, constraints on inmate productivity, governmental constraints such as the state's personnel system, and a weak internal governance structure.
Please see Reforming the Prison Industry Authority, April 1996.
Brian Brown: 319-8351
Enact legislation to modify the process by which parole consideration dates are established for Youth Authority wards with less serious offenses. Specifically, permit counties to have a greater say in determining the length of stay of wards that they send to the Youth Authority.
When a young offender is accepted by the Youth Authority as a new admission, he becomes a ward of the department, and all decisions regarding length of stay, parole, and parole revocation are at the sole discretion of the Youth Authority Board (YAB). Current law also requires counties to pay a fee to the state for each offender they send to the Youth Authority. Counties pay significantly higher fees for wards sent to the Youth Authority for less serious offenses (YAB categories V through VII) than serious offenses. Because the counties pay for a large share of the costs of these less serious wards, the counties should have a role in determining the optimal length of stay for the wards, rather then leaving the decision solely to the YAB. There are several options for how this could be accomplished.
Please see our 1999-00 Analysis, page D-105.
Melissa Tanner: 319-8343
Give counties the responsibility and funding to supervise juveniles released from Youth Authority facilities. Under this proposal, individuals leaving the state Youth Authority would transition directly into the local probation system. State funding that would otherwise be used for juvenile parole services would be redirected to county probation departments in the form of a subvention grant.
Under the California Constitution, as recently amended by Proposition 1A, the transfer of additional program responsibility to local government would have to be accompanied by commensurate offsetting revenues of program savings.
There is a high level of duplication within the state and local juvenile justice systems. Both the state and local governments operate programs to supervise youthful offenders in the community. However, the local probation system is much larger and has a broader array of existing services to address the diverse needs of the youthful offender population.
Please see our 2004-05 Perspectives and Issues, page 93.
Greg Jolivette: 319-8340
| Acknowledgments
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