Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - Those departments may seek increases in compensation to ensure their pay remains competitive with CDCR —potentially adding still more costs to the state. Extending Licensing Exemptions to Out‑of‑State Licensed Providers State Licensing Policies Limit Pool of Potential Providers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134

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

Jun 12, 2025 - Changes Outside of the Criminal Justice System Likely Have Impacted Retail Theft Trends Many different factors can affect the rate of retail theft, including those that are not directly related to the criminal justice system.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5055

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

Feb 23, 2026 - Adding More Licensing Exemptions for Those Who Work at Prisons. Currently, providers with out ‑of ‑state licenses are required to obtain a California license to work in CDCR, though some may use their out ‑of ‑state license on a temporary basis.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5137

Assessing Community College Programs at State Prisons

Jul 1, 2024 - (Beginning in 2023 ‑24, colleges may use these funds to cover textbook costs in other correctional settings too, including county jails and federal prisons located in the state.) CDCR Is Funded to Provide Technology for Incarcerated Students.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4913

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 19, 2025 - Many Users Lack Incentive to Use BFS Services Cost ‑Effectively. BFS ’s current funding structure provides the agencies it serves with little incentive to use its services in a cost ‑effective manner.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4972

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 - Many of the changes received funding through the state ’s annual budget process. Below, we highlight a few of the significant changes to prison medical care under the Receivership (see   Figure  1 ).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4813

The 2024-25 Budget: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Feb 22, 2024 - In addition, because this change will mean that many people who currently have jobs in prison will spend less hours working, the regulations would increase wages for most j obs so that their total pay is not reduced.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4852

The California State Bar: Assessment of Proposed Disciplinary Case Processing Standards

Jan 6, 2023 - Accordingly, the resulting study may suffer which could lead to both too many resources or too few resources being identified as being needed —and potentially provided —to support OCTC workload. Difficult to Assess Impact of Additional Positions Funded in 2019.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4655

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