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June 12, 2008 - LAO compromise for Item 0250 of the 2008 Budget Conference Committee.
March 13, 2008 - Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 4
March 13, 2008 - Presented to Assembly Budget Subcommittee No.4
March 10, 2008 - Water and Waste District Enterprise Special District Property Taxes Redirected to Support Public Safety/Parole Realignment
March 10, 2008 - Handout summarizing the LAO's proposed realignment of responsibility for supervision of low-level criminal offenders from the state parole system to county probation.
February 20, 2008 - Presented to the Senate Public Safety Committee
February 20, 2008 - While the prison system has taken some initial steps to improve its current population budget request documents, further work is needed. We recommend several steps to improve the process used to budget for changes in the prison inmate population that will improve their accuracy, efficiency, and transparency.
February 20, 2008 - Prison officials have made some progress, but encountered some obstacles, in implementing a $7.7 billion package of prison construction projects. We raise concerns about how the estimated construction cost per bed for new infill bed facilities has nearly tripled compared to the cost of a prison built a few years ago. We recommend that the infill bed plan be revised after obtaining an independent estimate of construction costs to avoid the possibility of overspending hundreds of millions of dollars for these projects.
February 20, 2008 - We propose a nearly $500 million realignment of responsibility for supervision of low-level criminal offenders from the state parole system to county probation. Funding for parole realignment would come from a reallocation of waste and water district property taxes, city Proposition 172 sales taxes, and vehicle license fees. Our plan is designed to give counties a greater stake in the success of these offenders in the community, thereby reducing their likelihood of reoffending.
February 20, 2008 - The administration proposes to release certain inmates from prison early and place them under minimal parole supervision, a policy it terms "summary parole." We recommend alternatives offering a better tradeoff between public safety and budget savings: (1) changing crimes currently classified as "wobblers" to misdemeanors and (2) substituting an "earned discharge" program for the Governor’s summary parole proposal.
February 20, 2008 - The Governor’s budget proposes 10 percent across-the-board reductions for criminal justice local assistance programs to achieve about $60 million in savings. We recommend instead that the Legislature achieve savings of about $270 million by eliminating or reducing General Fund support for programs that have not demonstrated results, do not serve a statewide purpose, could be consolidated, or could be funded from other sources.
February 20, 2008 - The budget proposes an unallocated reduction of $246 million for the Judicial Branch. We recommend the Legislature adopt a savings target that is consistent with its own program and spending priorities and take specific actions. Options include suspending State Appropriations Limit adjustments, phasing in electronic court reporting, adjusting the budget for delays in the appointment of new judges, and increasing court revenues.
February 12, 2008 -
Executive Summary
According to national research, academic and vocational programs can significantly reduce the likelihood that offenders will commit new offenses and return to prison. Despite these findings, the state offers these programs to only a relatively small segment of the inmate population. Moreover, the inmate education programs that do exist suffer from a number of problems that limit their effectiveness at reducing recidivism. To improve prison education programs and public safety, we recommend several structural reforms to increase the performance, outcomes, and accountability of the existing inmate education programs, as well as ways to expand their capacity at a low cost to the state.
February 7, 2008 - The administration proposes a 5 percent raise for correctional officers and legislation to allow it to impose a labor settlement on the officers’ union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). We find that the officers’ compensation levels are sufficient to allow the prisons to meet personnel needs at the present time, but we generally agree with other administration proposals to increase management control in prisons. We note that the dysfunctional relationship between the administration and CCPOA makes it more difficult to address the many issues facing the state’s prison and personnel management systems.