Assessing Community College Programs at State Prisons

Jul 1, 2024 - Course success rates vary by instructional modality among incarcerated students. Figure  6 shows that success rates are consistently lower for students in correspondence courses. In fall 2019 (the year just before the pandemic), the gap in success rates between in ‑person and correspondence courses was 15  percentage points.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4913

Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - Given that CDCR reports having more success in hiring tele ‑mental health providers, we expect this expansion to reduce vacancies in the long run. Ask Court to Allow Tele ‑Mental Health Providers to Work From Out ‑of ‑State.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134

The 2026-27 Budget: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Feb 23, 2026 - It is possible that after the department is no longer deactivating facilities in close succession, CDCR ’s vacancy rate will increase to historical levels. If this occurs, CDCR could have sufficient salary savings to pay these costs without the proposed dedicated  funding.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5137

Assessing the Provision of Criminal Indigent Defense

Sep 22, 2022 - There should exist, at a minimum, parity between full ‑time indigent defense providers and full ‑time prosecutors in net compensation, as well as benefits or an amount sufficient to provide benefits of the same value.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4623

Achieving the Goals of the SB 678 County Probation Grant Program

Oct 10, 2023 - To the extent counties are using S B  678 grants to fund evidence ‑based practices that successfully reduce prison commitments, reductions in this funding could be problematic. This is because reductions in funding for evidence ‑based practices could lead to increased crime and state costs if probation departments are no longer able to fund practices that successfully prevent crime and reduce prison commitments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4806

2009-10 Budget Analysis Series: Criminal Justice Realignment [Publication Details]

Jan 27, 2009 - Under our realignment concept, counties would have broad authority to manage juvenile and drug–addicted adult offenders programs to achieve success. We recommend that the Legislature finance this criminal justice realignment by increasing the vehicle license fee (VLF) rate to 1 percent (which results in a revenue gain of $1.1 billion) and redirecting $359 million of existing VLF revenues.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/1913

The 2013-14 Budget: Obtaining Federal Funds for Inmate Medical Care--A Status Report [Publication Details]

Feb 5, 2013 - In order to ensure that the state maximizes the available federal funding, we recommend that the Legislature (1) hold budget hearings to identify and resolve any remaining obstacles preventing the Receiver from securing MOUs with counties to enroll inmates in their LIHPs, and (2) require DHCS to report on its efforts to address problems that are preventing certain claims for federal reimbursement from being successfully processed.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/2685

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Judiciary and Criminal Justice

Oct 24, 2025 - For example, the legislation allows proceeds of sales of CDCR properties to be used for activities —such as demolition, abatement, or conducting due diligence studies —intended to improve the likelihood of successful redevelopment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5085

The 2019-20 Budget: Reorganization of the Division of Juvenile Justice

Apr 10, 2019 - At the time of this analysis, the administration had not provided any information identifying the specific barriers that it believes prevent DJJ from ensuring that youth offenders are successful upon release to the community.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3998

Improving In-Prison Rehabilitation Programs

Dec 6, 2017 - To the extent the Legislature wanted to make funding contingent on program quality, it could also fund programs based on various outcome measures —such as the proportion of inmates who successfully complete programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3720