Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - First, the positions added to the easier ‑to ‑staff prisons would be more likely to be filled. Second, reducing the number of patients and vacant positions at the hard ‑to ‑staff facilities would mean the mental health staff remaining at those prisons would not be stretched as thin, which could improve retention and, possibly, recruitment at those prisons.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134

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

Jun 12, 2025 - Furthermore, an unusually large number of law enforcement agencies —whose jurisdictions include roughly 10  percent of the state population —did not report crime numbers for some or all of 2023. (For example, San Bernardino Sheriff ’s Department did not report crime data for seven months of 2023.)
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

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 11, 2026 - As shown in Figure  3, DROS Special Account revenues often fluctuate from year to year, generally reflecting changes in fee levels and the number of firearms sold. DROS Special Account expenditures routinely exceeded revenues prior to 2019-20 —resulting in the decline of the fund balance.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5118

The 2026-27 Budget: Judicial Branch

Feb 11, 2026 - Figure 3 Status of Trial Court Construction Projects Beginning  in 2019 ‑20 a Priority Group Estimated Project Costs (in Billions) Number Initiated
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5113

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Justice

Feb 19, 2025 - For example, one potential funding option discussed in the report was to increase the specific fee added when individuals are convicted of criminal offenses which generates the revenue deposited into the DNA Identification Fund.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4972

Assessing Community College Programs at State Prisons

Jul 1, 2024 - Given that the results of the recommended data and studies have the potential to notably improve legislative decision ‑making on prison postsecondary education policy and programs moving forward, we believe the added administrative workload is warranted.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4913

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

Feb 22, 2024 - CDCR arrived at this estimate by adding the average expenditures on testing for staff between April 2023 and September 2023 and the prison population between April 2023 and August 2023 and assuming that the department would continue spending at that monthly rate in 2024‑25 and ongoing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4852

Overview and Update on the Prison Receivership

Nov 8, 2023 - An estimated $194  million was added to the state budget from 2002 ‑03 through 2006 ‑07 to address the problems identified in prison medical care. However, upon further review of the state ’s performance, the federal court found that the state had failed to comply with its orders.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4813

The 2024-25 Budget: Juvenile Custodial Interrogation Mandate

May 28, 2024 - For example, the number of interrogations may fluctuate based on local policing decisions or changes in the number of youth arrests. Furthermore, statewide costs could be affected by other factors that remain uncertain, such as ch anges in the number of counties that choose to file reimbursable claims and the extent to which counties include law enforcement or indirect costs in their claims.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4910