Addressing Chronic Vacancies in Prison Mental Health Care

Feb 23, 2026 - Additional Licensing Exemptions Could Expand the Pool of Providers. CDCR could benefit from recruiting from a wider pool of applicants, particularly those from out of state that already hold licenses in their respective states.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5134

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

Feb 23, 2026 - This unnecessarily limits the pool of potential applicants to people living or willing to relocate to California. If the state and court allowed tele ‑mental health providers to work outside of California, it could likely attract a much larger pool of qualified providers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5137

Assessing Community College Programs at State Prisons

Jul 1, 2024 - In addition, many prisons are in rural areas of the state with relatively small pools of individuals who are qualified to teach postsecondary courses. In particular, college administrators indicate they would offer more STEM courses but are limited due to lack of available faculty to teach those subjects.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4913

The 2016-17 Budget: Governor’s Criminal Justice Proposals

Feb 22, 2016 - According to the department, this will help increase the amount of treatment received in the program and expand the pool of eligible participants. Proposal Unlikely to Be Most Cost–Effective Approach for Reducing Recidivism The MCRP is a relatively new program and its effectiveness at reducing recidivism has not been evaluated.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3359

The 2018-19 Budget: Criminal Justice Proposals

Feb 27, 2018 - Accordingly, it appears likely that the Governor ’s proposal would not be effective in expanding the labor pool. Proposal Does Not Address Shortage in Civil Service Maintenance Staff. As discussed above, CDCR indicates its current maintenance backlog is partly due to the difficulty of hiring civil service maintenance workers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3762

The 2019-20 Budget: Analysis of Governor's Criminal Justice Proposals

Feb 19, 2019 - The administration has not been able to specify the pool of inmates who would be eligible for the program. For example, it is not clear if the program would be limited to inmates with tattoos that are hard to cover up and/or indicate a gang affiliation or if all inmates with a tattoo would be eligible.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3940