Legislative Analyst's Office
February 22, 1995

Department of Corrections (5240)

The California Department of Corrections (CDC) is responsible for the incarceration, training, education, and care of adult felons and nonfelon narcotics addicts. It also supervises and treats parolees released to the community.

By the end of 1995-96, the department will operate 32 institutions, including a central medical facility and a treatment center for narcotic addicts under civil commitment. The CDC system also includes 11 reception centers to process newly committed prisoners, community correctional centers, fire and conservation camps, the Richard A. McGee Correctional Training Center, alternative sentencing programs, and outpatient psychiatric services for parolees and their families.

The budget proposes total expenditures of $3.5 billion for the CDC in 1995-96. This is $413 million, or 14 percent, above estimated current-year expenditures. The primary cause of this increase is the growth in the inmate population and the expansion of prison facilities and staff to accommodate that growth. Two new prisons are expected to open in the current year and another two in 1995-96.

Proposed General Fund expenditures for the budget year total $3.3 billion, an increase of $374 million, or 13 percent, over total General Fund expenditures in the current year.

The Governor's Budget assumes that the state will receive $422 million from the federal government during 1995-96 in reimbursement of what the administration estimates to be the $503 million annual cost of incarcerating and supervising parole of felons who are illegally in the United States and have committed crimes in California. The funds are not included in the CDC's budget display, however, but are scheduled as offsets to total state General Fund expenditures. (We discuss the administration's assumption later in this analysis.)

Overview of the Inmate Population

Who Is in State Prison?

Figures 8 through 11 illustrate the characteristics of the state's prison population, as of June 30, 1994. As the charts show:

• The majority of inmates are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses (Figure 8).
• About 65 percent of all inmates were committed to prison from Southern California, with about 38 percent from Los Angeles County alone. The San Francisco Bay Area is the source of about 15 percent of prison commitments and San Diego is the source of 8 percent (Figure 9).
• More than 63 percent of all inmates are between 20 and 34 years of age, with the number of inmates falling dramatically starting by the mid-30s (Figure 10).
• The prison population is divided relatively evenly among whites, blacks, and Hispanics (Figure 11).

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