State Correctional Spending Increased Despite Significant Population Reductions

Feb 4, 2020 - Increased Employee Compensation Costs. Increases in pension costs and raises given to employees caused employee compensation costs to grow substantially. Spending on Costs Deferred During Fiscal Crisis.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4145

Assessing Community College Programs at State Prisons

Jul 1, 2024 - Digital Library Subscription. The state provides $500,000 ongoing funding for digital library subscriptions for incarcerated students at all CDCR prisons. Students have access to research databases, e ‑journals, magazine subscriptions, peer ‑reviewed articles, and e ‑books that can be used to complete course  assignments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4913

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

Feb 23, 2026 - The cost of such changes
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5137

Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - Those salary costs would directly increase the state ’s costs for benefits where the employer ’s cost is determined as a percentage of pay (often referred to as “salary ‑driven ” benefits) like employer contributions to pension benefits.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 11, 2026 - It also directs DOJ require licensed firearms dealers charge a fee of up to $5 per check (not to exceed actual processing costs). This fee may be increased annually by up to $1, but may not exceed actual costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5118

The 2026-27 Budget: Judicial Branch

Feb 11, 2026 - The estimated costs of these 17 projects increased to around $14  billion. Similarly, while most of the remaining projects on the 2019 list have not been reassessed, the costs of projects in other parts of the state are likely increasing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5113

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

Oct 24, 2025 - This change reflects the restructuring of funding for the office in which  72  percent of OGC costs will be distributed across the entire department —consistent with how DOJ currently distributes its general administration costs —and a greater share of its costs will be supported by various special funds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5085

The 2022-23 Budget: Governor's Proposals for CDCR Operations

Feb 8, 2022 - The proposal includes funding for administrative support positions and a customized database subscription for inmates to access scholarly journal articles. The proposal assumes federal funds would be accessible to most participating inmates and estimates that participants will be enrolled on a full ‑time basis at a cost of about $10,000  per inmate.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4517

Retail Theft in California: Looking Back at a Decade of Change

Jun 12, 2025 - How Much Have Criminal Justice System Costs Increased? Many of the law changes increase state and local government costs —primarily by increasing the prison, jail, and probation populations. However, the actual increase in costs will depend on implementation decisions made by various actors.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5055

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 19, 2025 - An alternative approach that uses a cost ‑sharing model by requiring BFS users to pay a portion of BFS costs would help address the weaknesses we see in the Governor ’s approach. First, since these forensic services are essential to their law enforcement and prosecutorial responsibilities, sharing the costs with these agencies —rather than having
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4972