Analysis of the 2006-07 Budget Bill Legislative Analyst's Office February 2006

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (5225)

Effective July 1, 2005, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was created pursuant to the Governor’s Reorganization Plan 1 of 2005 and Chapter 10, Statutes of 2005 (SB 737, Romero). All departments that previously reported to the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency (YACA) were consolidated into CDCR and include YACA, the California Department of Corrections (CDC), Youth Authority, Board of Corrections, Board of Prison Terms, and the Commission on Correctional Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.

The CDCR is responsible for the incarceration, training, education, and care of adult felons and nonfelon narcotic addicts, as well as juvenile offenders. The CDCR also supervises and treats adult and juvenile parolees, and is responsible for the apprehension and reincarceration of those parolees who commit new offenses or parole violations. The department also sets minimum standards for the operation of local detention facilities and selection and training of law enforcement personnel, as well as provides grants to local governments for crime prevention and reduction programs.

The department operates 33 adult prisons, including 11 reception centers, a central medical facility, a treatment center for narcotic addicts under civil commitment, and a substance abuse facility for incarcerated felons. The CDCR also operates eight juvenile correctional facilities, including three reception centers. In addition, CDCR manages 13 Community Correctional Facilities, 44 adult and juvenile conservation camps, the Richard A. McGee Correctional Training Center, and 202 adult and juvenile parole offices.

Budget Overview

Budget Proposal

The budget proposes total expenditures of $8.1 billion for CDCR in 2006-07. This is $364 million, or about 5 percent, above the revised estimate for current-year expenditures. The primary causes of this increase are projected increases in the prison and parole populations, salaries, inmate medical and dental care, and implementation of Farrell v. Hickman remedial plans to address conditions of confinement in youth correctional facilities. Figure 1 shows the total expenditures estimated in the Governor’s budget for the current year and proposed for the budget year.

General Fund Expenditures. Proposed General Fund expenditures for the budget year total $7.9 billion, an increase of $380 million, or 5 percent, above the revised current-year estimate.

Federal Fund Expenditures. The CDCR budget includes $41 million in federal funds in the budget year. Most of these funds are distributed to local governments for criminal justice programs. The budget-year total represents a decrease of $17 million, or 29 percent, from estimated current-year receipts, due primarily to the sunsetting of certain federal grants for local correctional construction projects.

In addition, the Governor’s budget assumes that the state will receive about $114 million from the federal government during 2006-07 as partial reimbursement of CDCR’s costs (estimated to be more than $700 million in the budget year) for incarcerating inmates in prison who are illegally in the United States and have committed crimes in California. The federal funds are not included in CDCR’s budget display, but instead are scheduled as “offsets” to total state General Fund expenditures. The recently proposed federal budget, however, contains no funding for this purpose.

Current-Year Deficiency

The department’s budget proposes $183 million in additional General Fund expenditures in the current year compared to the 2005 Budget Act. This amount is slightly lower than recent budget deficiencies for CDC. In each of the past five years, CDC received deficiency funding of at least $200 million dollars, including $247 million in 2004-05. Figure 2 shows the most significant components of the additional spending estimated for the current year. Each of these proposals is described in more detail below.

Inmate, Ward, and Parolee Population Adjustments. The CDCR requests $65 million to fund projected changes in the inmate, ward, and parolee populations. Of this amount, about $59 million is to fund projected growth in the adult inmate and parole populations. The department is requesting about $6 million in additional funding to manage the juvenile population. We discuss the department’s request for population-related funding in more detail later in this chapter.

Basic Correctional Officer Academy Expansion. The proposed budget includes $25 million in additional funds in the current year to increase the department’s training capacity for new correctional officers, youth correctional officers, and parole agents. The department is requesting these funds to address estimated vacancies in the current and budget years.

Payments to Counties for State Use of Local Jail Beds. The CDCR budget request includes $85 million for payments to counties for the incarceration of parole violators. Of this total, $55 million is to pay outstanding claims from prior years. The remaining $30 million is to address estimated increases in current-year claims, primarily due to the state’s increased use of local jails to house parole violators.

Farrell v. Hickman Implementation. The administration requests $5 million to begin implementing the Safety and Welfare Remedial Plan as part of the Farrell v. Hickman settlement agreement. The plan proposes a number of changes over a multiyear period designed to transform CDCR’s Division of Juvenile Justice into a rehabilitative model of care and treatment for youthful offenders.