Legislative Analyst's Office

Analysis of the 2000-01 Budget Bill
Legislative Oversight

Departments Fail to Comply With Reporting Requirements

Boards and departments within the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency (YACA) did not comply with legislative directive to provide the Legislature with various reports required by statutory or supplemental report language. The resulting lack of information hinders the Legislature's oversight of state programs. We recommend that the Legislature withhold action on the budget of YACA pending the submittal of overdue reports by the agency and its constituent boards and departments.

Through supplemental reports to the budget act and the enactment of various statutes, the Legislature has directed boards and departments within the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency (YACA) to report on a number of their programs and activities. The Legislature's purpose in requesting these reports was to exercise legislative oversight by holding the departments accountable for their use of funds and staff in achieving statutory objectives and goals.

However, many of these required reports are now overdue--in one case by almost three years. Figure 1 (see next page) lists the departments, overdue reports, and their due dates. The lack of information hinders the Legislature's ability to evaluate the departments' budget needs, assess their performance, hold the departments accountable for their performance, and develop new policy initiatives.

Analyst Recommendation. It is important that the Legislature have a means of obtaining information it deems necessary to make policy and budget decisions. In view of the failure of the boards and departments to provide a number of legislatively required reports, we recommend the Legislature withhold action on the budget of YACA until the reports due from the agencies and their constituent departments and boards are submitted to the Legislature.
Figure 1
Youth and Adult Correctional Agency

Boards' and Departments' Overdue Reports

Due Date
Board of Prison Terms
  • Electronic monitoring. Chapter 867, Statutes of 1995 (AB 1804, Goldsmith).
 January 1, 2000
California Department of Corrections
  • Participation in federal programs. Supplemental Report of the 1998 Budget Act.
 December 1, 1998
  • Inmate classification pilot project. Supplemental Report of the 1998 Budget Act.
 December 1, 1999
  • Parole classification study. 1996-97 Budget Act.
 March 1, 1998
  • Parole staffing study. Supplemental Report of the 1996 Budget Act.
 March 1, 1997 and March 1, 1998
  • Computer-assisted inmate literacy project. Chapter 317, Statutes of 1995 (SB 775, Costa).
 December 1, 1998
  • Parolee participation in domestic violence programs. Chapter 983, Statutes of 1996 (AB 2353, Alpert).
 February 1, 1998 and July 1, 1999
  • Incidents at state prisons. Chapter 591, Statutes of 1997 (AB 995, Rod Pacheco).
 January 1, 2000
  • Substance abuse treatment program. Chapter 585, Statutes of 1993 (AB 10, Costa).
 January 1, 2000
Commission on Correctional Peace Officers' Standards and Training
  • Training standards for correctional officer academies.
 September 1, 1999
Youthful Offender Parole Board
  • Ward parole consideration dates. Supplemental Report of the 1999 Budget Act.
 January 1, 2000

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