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

Jun 12, 2025 - How much have justice system costs increased? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Collecting answers to these questions will allow the Legislature to both monitor the implementation of the law changes and help it assess whether they are successful in reducing retail theft.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5055

Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - If the state —working with the court —allowed tele ‑mental health providers to work outside of California, it could likely attract a much larger pool of qualified professionals. Moreover, California often pays mental health professionals more than other states.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 19, 2025 - The Governor ’s proposal would commit the state to providing roughly $35  million General Fund annually over the next few years, and potentially even more in the following years. This  approach comes with significant trade ‑offs for other parts of the state budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4972

Assessing Community College Programs at State Prisons

Jul 1, 2024 - Community colleges and CDCR generally report a much greater ability to accommodate demand for correspondence courses, with typically much less wait time. (Later in this section, we identify the main limitations to expanding in ‑person CCC course offerings.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4913

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

Feb 23, 2026 - If the state and court allowed tele ‑mental health providers to work outside of California, it could likely attract a much larger pool of qualified providers. Moreover, California often pays mental health professionals more than other states.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5137

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - We suggest the Legislature take heed of these risks and avoid putting too much stock in the recent revenue rebound until it is accompanied by clear improvements in California ’s broader economy. Governor ’s Use of Reserves Remains Reasonable.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

Overview and Update on the Prison Receivership

Nov 8, 2023 - Accordingly, the October 2021 order specifies that the state and the Receiver shall implement any changes in laws and regulation necessary to eliminate the need for the waivers implemented by the Receiver as much as possible.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4813

The 2026-27 Budget: Judicial Branch

Feb 11, 2026 - Trial courts have a limited ability to keep and carry over any unspent funds (also known as “reserves ”) from one fiscal year to the next. Specifically, trial courts are only allowed to carry over funds equal to 3  percent of their operating budget from the prior fiscal year under current law.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5113

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 11, 2026 - If the fee levels are lower than current or projected costs, the Legislature would be better equipped to assess (1)  how much of this workload needs to be supported from the General Fund at the cost of other budget priorities or (2)  whether the cost of the workload needs to be reduced —such as through statutory or other changes —to avoid such budgetary trade-offs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5118

The 2021-22 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 10, 2021 - While those estimates were reasonable at the time, since then, we have learned that they were too pessimistic. This means the state took a number of actions to balance the budget —including making withdrawals from reserves and shifting costs —that were larger than necessary.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4309