BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó







                      SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
                            Senator Loni Hancock, Chair              S
                             2011-2012 Regular Session               B

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          SB 490 (Hancock)                                            
          As Amended April 25, 2011 
          Hearing date:  May 3, 2011
          Penal Code
          AA:dl

                            OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
                                           

                                       HISTORY

          Source:  Author

          Prior Legislation: AB 900 (Solorio) - Ch. 7, Stats. 2007
                       SB 737 (Romero) - Ch. 10, Stats. 2005
                       SB 1400 (Romero) - Ch. 736, Stats. 2004
                       SB 1462 (Maddy) - Ch. 766, Stats. 1994

          Support: California Correctional Supervisors Organization

          Opposition:None Known
           


                                         KEY ISSUE
           
          SHOULD THE OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL BE RESTRUCTURED TO NARROW 
          ITS DUTIES, REPEAL PEACE OFFICER STATUS FOR ITS EMPLOYEES, AND BE 
          RECHARACTERIZED AS THE "OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT CORRECTIONAL 
          OVERSIGHT" WITH A DIRECTOR INSTEAD OF AN INSPECTOR GENERAL, AS 
          SPECIFIED?






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                                       PURPOSE

          The purpose of this bill is to restructure the Office of the 
          Inspector General to 1) narrow its duties and authorities, as 
          specified; 2) repeal the statutory authority giving its 
          personnel peace officer status and instead provide them with 
          non-peace officer authority relating to powers of arrest, 
          serving warrants, and access to summary criminal history 
          information, as specified; and 3) rename the office as the 
          "Office of Independent Correctional Oversight," with a director 
          instead of an Inspector General, with related changes.

           Current law  creates the independent office of the Inspector 
          General which shall not be a subdivision of any other 
          governmental entity.  The Governor shall appoint, subject to 
          confirmation by the Senate, the Inspector General to a six-year 
          term.  (Penal Code § 6125.)

           This bill  would revise and reform the Office of the Inspector 
          General as follows:

          Name Change
          
           This bill  would rename the Office of the Inspector General to 
          the Office of Independent Correctional Oversight ("Office").

          Purpose
          
           This bill  would define the following purpose of the Office:

               The purpose of the Office of Independent Correctional 
               Oversight shall be to perform its functions as 
               prescribed by law in a manner that promotes 
               management, fiscal and program competency, and 




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               accountability in the state correctional system in 
               furtherance of public safety and evidence-based 
               correctional practices.

          Office Director

           This bill  would delete in law the position of Inspector General, 
          and would replace it, as proposed by this bill, as the position 
          of director for the Office.

           Current law  provides that the Governor shall appoint, subject to 
          confirmation by the Senate, the Inspector General to a six-year 
          term, and provides that the Inspector General may not be removed 
          from office during that term, except for good cause.  (Penal 
          Code § 6125.)

           This bill  would change the term of office for the director of 
          the Office from 6 to 4 years.




          Duties and Authorities

           Current law  charges the Inspector General with specified duties 
          concerning the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 
          ("CDCR").  (Penal Code § 6126 et seq.)  In summary these duties 
          and authorities include the following:

                 reviewing CDCR policy and procedures;
                 conducting audits of investigatory practices and other 
               audits;
                 responsibility for contemporaneous oversight of internal 
               affairs investigations and the disciplinary process;
                 conducting investigations of CDCR, as requested by 
               either the Secretary of CDCR or a Member of the 
               Legislature, pursuant to the approval of the Inspector 
               General under policies to be developed by the Inspector 
               General;  
                 auditing each warden of an institution one year after 




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               his or her appointment, and audit
                 each correctional institution at least once every four 
               years, as specified; 
                 recommending corrective actions, including, but not 
               limited to, additional training with respect to 
               investigative policies, additional policies, or changes in 
               policy, as well as any other findings or recommendations 
               that the Inspector General deems appropriate;
                 reviewing the Governor's candidates for appointment to 
               serve as warden for the state's adult correctional 
               institutions and as superintendents for the state's 
               juvenile facilities, as specified; 
                 developing a methodology for producing a workload budget 
               to be used for annually adjusting the budget of the Office 
               of the Inspector General, as specified (Penal Code § 
               6126.);  
                 initiating an investigation or an audit on the IG's own 
               accord (PC 6126(a).);
                 reporting annually to the Governor and the Legislature a 
               summary of his or her investigations and audits, as 
               specified (Penal Code § 6132); 
                 conducting and administering the California 
               Rehabilitation Oversight Board (C-ROB), to "regularly 
               examine the various mental health, substance abuse, 
               educational, and employment programs for inmates and 
               parolees operated by" CDCR, as specified; (Penal Code § 
               6141);  and 
                 through its Bureau of Independent Review, doing the 
               following:

             o    conducting contemporaneous public oversight of CDCR 
               investigations conducted by the CDCR Office of Internal 
               Affairs;
             o    advising the public regarding the adequacy of each 
               investigation, and whether discipline of the subject of the 
               investigation is warranted;
             o    having discretion to provide public oversight of other 
               CDCR personnel investigations as needed; and
             o    issuing regular reports, no less than annually, as 
               specified (Penal Code § 6133). 




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           This bill  would narrow these duties and authorities to the 
          following:

            Mandatory Duties

           This bill  would maintain the following duties, without 
          substantive change, of the Office of the Inspector General under 
          the new Office:

                 the current duties of the Bureau of Independent Review; 
                 the current warden vetting duties of the OIG, with the 
               additional requirement that the Office adopt and implement 
               regulations and procedures relating to warden candidate 
               reviews on or before December 31, 2012; and
                 the current duties relating to the California 
               Rehabilitation Oversight Board.

            Discretionary Authority

           This bill  would authorize the Office to conduct oversight 
          reviews pertaining to the following significant correctional 
          issues relating to the Department of Corrections and 
          Rehabilitation:

            (1)  Security procedures, including contraband interdiction.
            (2)  Inmate, ward, and parolee administrative appeals and 
          grievances.
            (3)  Employee use of force.
            (4)  Prison Rape Elimination Act procedures.
            (5)  Inmate-patient health care delivery. 
           
           This bill  would require that these discretionary oversight 
          reviews may be conducted only pursuant to the adoption of 
          regulations and procedures for determining how the issues before 
          the office shall be considered and selected.

          Peace Office Status
          
           Current law  provides that the Inspector General and his or her 




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          deputies, assistants and employees are peace officers, as 
          specified.  (Penal Code §§ 830.2 and 830.5) 

           This bill  would delete the Inspector General and his or her 
          deputies, assistants and employees from these sections 
          designating them as peace officers. 

           Current law  authorizes specified persons who are not peace 
          officers to exercise the powers of arrest of a peace office and 
          the power to serve warrants, as specified.<1>  (Penal Code § 
          830.11.) 
           This bill  would amend this section to include the director of 
          the Office of Independent Correctional Oversight and those 
          employees of the office as designated by the director, provided 
          that the primary duty of those persons shall be the enforcement 
          of the law relating to the duties of the Office, as described 
          and specified in this bill. 


                    RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
          
          For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's 
          prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation. 
           As these cases have progressed, prison conditions have 
          continued to be assailed, and the scrutiny of the federal courts 
          over California's prisons has intensified.  

          ---------------------------
          <1>  These persons generally have the primary duty of 
          enforcement and investigation of laws related to, and who are 
          employed by,  the following state departments:  the Department 
          of Financial Institutions; the Department of Real Estate; the 
          State Lands Commission; the Investigations Bureau of the 
          Department of Insurance;  the Consumer Services Division or the 
          Rail Safety and Carrier Division of the Public Utilities 
          Commission; the State Board of Equalization, Investigations 
          Division; and the Department of Food and Agriculture.  These 
          persons also receive state summary criminal history information 
          and shall be furnished that information on the same basis as 
          peace officers of the state, as specified.  (Penal Code § 
          830.11.)



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          On June 30, 2005, in a class action lawsuit filed four years 
          earlier, the United States District Court for the Northern 
          District of California established a Receivership to take 
          control of the delivery of medical services to all California 
          state prisoners confined by the California Department of 
          Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR").  In December of 2006, 
          plaintiffs in two federal lawsuits against CDCR sought a 
          court-ordered limit on the prison population pursuant to the 
          federal Prison Litigation Reform Act.  On January 12, 2010, a 
          three-judge federal panel issued an order requiring California 
          to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of design 
          capacity -- a reduction at that time of roughly 40,000 inmates 
          -- within two years.  The court stayed implementation of its 
          ruling pending the state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.  

          On Monday, June 14, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear 
          the state's appeal of this order and, on Tuesday, November 30, 
          2010, the Court heard oral arguments.  A decision is expected as 
          early as this spring.  

          In response to the unresolved prison capacity crisis, in early 
          2007 the Senate Committee on Public Safety began holding 
          legislative proposals which could further exacerbate prison 
          overcrowding through new or expanded felony prosecutions.     

           This bill  does not appear to aggravate the prison overcrowding 
          crisis described above.


                                      COMMENTS

          1.  Stated Need for This Bill

           The author states:

               This bill starts the process of eliminating the abuse 
               of peace officer status in state government and the 
               resulting waste of taxpayer dollars. Attorneys and 
               auditors in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) 
               receive peace officer status despite the fact that 




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               their job duties do not require the specialized 
               functions of law enforcement officers.

               A recent report by the Senate Office of Oversights and 
               Outcomes titled, "Gun-toting Auditors and Attorneys: 
               Does the Inspector General Need 105 Armed Peace 
               Officers?" found that outfitting each attorney and 
               auditor with guns, holsters, handcuffs, ammunition and 
               related equipment costs more than $2,000 per employee. 
                The report also revealed that their state-issued cars 
               logged more than 700,000 miles for home-to-work 
               commutes, at no cost to the employee. That figure 
               represented 70% of the total mileage utilized. The OIG 
               use peace officer perks to attract and retain its team 
               of lawyers and auditors. Since 2004, the proportion of 
               peace officers has grown in the agency from 44% in 
               2003 to 70% today.

               SB 490 eliminates the wasteful spending at the OIG by 
               removing peace officer status from the Inspector 
               General and other employees of the OIG, and recasts 
               the mission and responsibilities of the OIG to ensure 
               the agency continues to carry out its work in a 
               cost-effective manner.  

          2.  What This Bill Would Do

          As described in detail above, this bill would restructure and 
          refocus the operations of the Office of the Inspector General.  
          In summary, this bill would do the following:

                     Eliminate peace officer status, and instead provide 
                 arrest and search warrant authority and access to summary 
                 criminal history information now available to other 
                 similarly situated state employees who are not peace 
                 officers;
                     Distill the duties of the office to the following 
                 three:
                    o           current Bureau of Independent Review 
                      functions (oversight of CDCR investigations);




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                    o           warden vetting; and
                    o           C-ROB.
                       Focus discretionary oversight review to the 
                  following five categories:
                    o           Security procedures, including contraband 
                      interdiction;
                    o           Inmate, ward, and parolee administrative 
                      appeals and grievances;
                    o           Prison Rape Elimination Act procedures;
                    o           Inmate-patient health care delivery; and
                    o           Fiscal controls for contracts and grants.

                     Rename the OIG the "Office of Independent 
                 Correctional Oversight;" and
                     Replace the Inspector General with a director, 
                 appointed by Governor, subject to Senate; and 
                 confirmation, with a term reduced from 6 to 4 years.


            SHOULD THE OIG BE RESTRUCTURED AS PROPOSED BY THIS BILL?

            WOULD THIS RESTRUCTURING SAVE GENERAL FUND DOLLARS WHILE 
            RETAINING KEY FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE? 

            3.    Recent Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes Report

             In November of 2010, the Senate Office of Oversight and 
            Outcomes issued a report entitled, "Gun-Toting Auditors and 
            Attorneys: Does the Inspector General Need 105 Armed Peace 
            Officers?"  The summary for this report includes the 
            following:

               The Office of the Inspector General is an independent 
               state agency
               established in 1998 to oversee and investigate alleged 
               wrongdoing within
               the state corrections department.  Among its duties, 
               OIG conducts audits
               and investigations of the California Department of 
               Corrections and




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               Rehabilitation, oversees the department's internal 
               affairs investigations,
               collects complaints and tips about the correctional 
               system, evaluates
               candidates for warden, and inspects facilities.

               The OIG workforce has tripled in the last six years, 
               from 48 to 150.  At the
               same time, the proportion of peace officers has also 
               grown: from 44%
               in 2003 to 70% today.  Much of the growth at OIG was 
               the result of the
               creation in 2004 of a Bureau of Independent Review.  
               The new bureau was
               part of the state's response to the well-publicized 
               federal court oversight
               of the prison system in the ongoing Madrid litigation, 
               which found that
               state corrections officials were plagued by inadequate 
               internal policing and
               insufficient investigation of wrongful behavior, 
               including excessive force.

               As currently configured, 105 of the 150 positions in 
               the Office of the
               Inspector General are sworn peace officers. Their 
               titles are spelled out in
               Penal Code Section 830.2 (j), a statute amended in 
               2009 specifically to
               include the 27 lawyers in the Bureau of Independent 
               Review.  The office's
               auditors have been peace officers since the OIG was 
               established, along
               with the Inspector General himself.
                . .




               Among our findings:




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                 OIG staffers from the Inspector General on down are 
               expected to
               carry a gun and ammunition at all times theyre on 
               duty: at the office,
               on the road, in the air.  But one place they always go 
               unarmed is
               inside a prison.  At California correctional 
               facilities, OIG staff must
               check their weapons at the gate or leave them locked 
               in their cars.

                 Those weapons have price tags: $430 for a Glock 
               semi-automatic
               pistol, $35 for a holster, $75 for ammunition.  All 
               told, outfitting each
               OIG peace officer costs taxpayers $2,050. Add the 
               take-home state
               car, and the grand total exceeds $20,000.

                 In the past five years no OIG peace officer has 
               fired a gun on duty,
               except at the firing range.  That itself can be 
               dangerous  one
               Deputy Inspector General accidentally shot himself 
               while putting
               in his required hours at the range.

                 70% of the mileage OIG peace officers put on their 
               take-home
               state cars is for their daily commute to the office. 
               The Senate
               oversight office asked for all vehicle home-storage 
               permits and was
               given permits for 71 OIG peace officers.  Based on 
               these permits,
               their home-to-office commutes total 3,230 miles per 
               workday (an
               average of 45 miles for each worker).  Overall, of the 
               1 million miles




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               logged by the OIG fleet in 2009/10, more than 700,000 
               miles were
               for employees' commute to work.

                 During 2007, 2008 and 2009, OIG fielded more than 
               10,000
               separate complaints and tips  but only eight cases 
               were referred to
               a law enforcement agency for possible criminal 
               prosecution during
               those three years.  Another six criminal 
               investigations were closed by
               the OIG for lack of evidence, for a total of 14 cases, 
               according to
               quarterly reports.  Despite the low number of criminal 
               cases, in
               2009 the OIG created a separate Bureau of Criminal 
               Investigation.

                 The career paths leading to these peace officer 
               positions indicate how
               unusual the Office of the Inspector General is in this 
               area.  In the two


               OIG bureaus that house the attorneys and auditors, 98% 
               were
               not peace officers before signing on with the 
               Inspector General.

                 The OIGs Bureau of Independent Review was modeled on 
               Los
               Angeles County's Office of Independent Review, a team 
               of lawyers
               who monitor the L.A. Sheriff's Department, including 
               county jails.
               The Los Angeles operation, however, is emphatically a 
               civilian group.
               "We don't feel we need peace officer status - we never 
               asked for it,




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               we never needed it, we don't want it," its chief 
               attorney said.

                 Californias Attorney General employs 1,150 lawyers. 
               They dont
               have take-home cars and only a handful  fewer than 5  
               are sworn
               peace officers. Just one carries a gun. None of the 
               AGs 80 auditors
               are peace officers or get state cars.
             
          As explained above, this bill would repeal the provisions in 
          existing law making OIG personnel peace officers.  Instead, this 
          bill would amend existing law to give them arrest and search 
          warrant authority, and access to summary criminal history 
                                                          information, as specified.

          Earlier this year, a budget trailer bill (SB 78 (Committee on 
          Budget and Fiscal Review)(Ch. 10, Stats. 2011) included in the 
          state peace officer/firefighter classification employees of the 
          Office of the Inspector General who are no longer peace officers 
          after the effective date of this act but who were hired as peace 
          officers prior to April 1, 2011, or prior to the first day of 
          the first pay period following the enactment of this act if this 
          act is enacted after April 1, 2011.  This bill does not affect 
          these grandfathering provisions.  SB 78 bill also allowed 
          continued peace officer status for OIG employees designated by 
          the Inspector General, "provided that the primary duty of these 
          peace officers shall be conducting investigations, of the 
          Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of 
          Juvenile Justice, and the Board of Parole Hearings."  This bill 
          would chapter out this provision, thereby eliminating any 
          statutory authority for peace officer status for these 
          positions.  

          SHOULD OIG EMPLOYEES NO LONGER BE PEACE OFFICERS?








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          4.  Background:  OIG

           In 1994, Senator Maddy's SB 1462 created the Office of the 
          Inspector General.  According to this Committee's<2> analysis of 
          that bill, that bill followed prior, unsuccessful measures:

               Last year this committee passed SB 328 (Maddy), which 
               also would have created an office of the Inspector 
               General in the Agency.  SB 328 contained specific 
               provisions regarding the mission and operation of the 
               office, such as initiating and     coordinating 
               internal investigative functions necessary to ensure 
               proper prison administration.  That bill also 
               addressed issues of retaliation and confidentiality of 
               misconduct reports and whistleblowers.  SB 328 died in 
               the Senate Rules Committee.

               This bill also is similar to SB 347 (Presley), which 
               was heard in this committee in 1992.  That measure 
               proposed an Office of Internal Affairs within the 
               Department of Corrections and passed this committee by 
               a vote of 9-0.  It was later amended     substantially 
               to require law enforcement agencies to adopt formal 
               policies regarding hot pursuit as a condition of 
               enjoying immunity and subsequently vetoed. 

          The analysis further explained:

               The sponsor of this bill, California Correctional 
               Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), states that the 
               creation of an Office of Inspector General in the 
               Agency was one of a number of recommendations made by 
               ----------------------
          <2> The analysis was prepared for the Senate Judiciary 
          Committee, which at the time was a unified committee with 
          jurisdiction over both criminal and civil matters.  The 
          committee was split the next session.  



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               the Little Hoover Commission for the improvement of 
               the Department of Corrections.  It has become 
               apparent, states CCPOA, that there is a need for a 
               formal investigative body to review policy and 
               compliance.

               . . .

               The Little Hoover Commission supports this measure 
               based on the findings and recommendations in the 
               Commission's January, 1994 report, "Putting Violence 
               Behind Bars: Redefining the Role of California's 
               Prisons."  The Commission states it found that the 
               "Department of Corrections is moving toward 
               centralized     accountability and standardization of 
               policies, but that daily practices at individual 
               prisons continue to result in abuse, questionable 
               actions and fodder for lawsuits against the State."  
               The Commission further states that testimony from the 
               Madrid lawsuit regarding Pelican Bay indicates some 
               investigations are not conducted according to rigorous 
               standards, and that many critics believe current 
               internal investigations "are hampered by a 'no-snitch' 
               ethic and Department ties that are too close for 
               credible objectivity."

          5.  The Madrid Case, and the Origin of the "BIR"
           
          The  Madrid  lawsuit noted by the Little Hoover Commission 
          ultimately gave rise to the Bureau of Independent Review ten 
          years after the initial creation of the OIG.<3>  As explained in 
          the SOO report noted above:

               After deep budget cuts in 2003, OIG was virtually shut 
               down - to be
               resurrected just a year later.  The catalyst for the 
               restoration was the federal
               court's ongoing legal oversight in the Madrid 
               litigation, which continued


               ----------------------
          <3>   SB 1400 (Romero) (Ch. 736. Stats. 2004).



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               to find constitutional infirmities in the internal 
               investigative process at the
               California Department of Corrections and 
               Rehabilitation.  In a scathing
               1995 declaration, the original Madrid decision found 
               that state corrections
               officials had "permitted and condoned" the use of 
               excessive force and were
               hamstrung due to a longstanding culture of neglect and 
               inability to crack
               internal impediments - including the so-called "code 
               of silence" among
               prison staff.

               As part of the Madrid remedy, the governor's office 
               and the federal court
               agreed to create a new organization within the OIG 
               called the Bureau of
               Independent Review (BIR).  The OIG's budget was 
               supplemented to reflect
               this new responsibility, and in early 2005 the office 
               began the work of
               recruiting a team of investigative lawyers to staff 
               the bureau.  . . . 

           Madrid  was a class action lawsuit filed in the federal court in 
          1990 to challenge the constitutionality of a broad range of 
          conditions and practices at Pelican Bay State Prison.  As 
          explained by the Court in the recent order terminating that 
          case:

               In an order dated January 10, 1995, the Court 
               concluded that the California Department of 
               Corrections ("CDC") had "failed to provide inmates at 
               Pelican Bay with constitutionally adequate medical and 
               mental health care," and had "permitted and condoned a 
               pattern of using excessive force, all in conscious 
               disregard of the serious harm that these practices 
               inflict." Madrid v. Gomez, 889 F. Supp. 1146, 1279 
               (N.D. Cal. 1995). The Court ordered that the parties 




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               develop a remedial plan to address the constitutional 
               violations and appointed a Special Master to assist in 
               the formulation and execution of a remedy. The Court 
               ordered that it would "retain jurisdiction over this 
               action until such time as the Court is satisfied that 
               all constitutional violations found herein have been 
               fully and effectively remedied." Id. at 1283. The case 
               then entered a lengthy remedial phase, in which the 
               Special Master monitored Pelican Bay's provision of 
               medical and mental health care, as well as its 
               supervision of and investigation into the use of 
               force. . . .<4>

          The  Madrid  Special Master's "Final Report Re Department of 
          Corrections Post Powers Investigations and Employee Discipline," 
          dated June 24, 2004, included the following with respect to the 
          need for an independent review entity: 

               Perhaps most importantly, the evidence demonstrates 
               that without the Special Master's hearings the 
               investigation and discipline problems discussed in 
               this report would never have come to light.  This 
               underscores the fact that the State of California has 
               no effective mechanism for monitoring and correcting 
               abuses when they occur within the Department of 
               Corrections' investigation and discipline system.  
               Without question, a competent, independent review 
               process is needed to oversee CDC investigations and 
               discipline, an organization with the authority to
               provide oversight on a real time basis and to report 
               its monitoring findings to government officials and 
               the public.

               . . .

               Last, but perhaps most important, a Bureau of 
               Independent Review (BIR)
               ----------------------
          <4>   Order Terminating Force-Related Orders and Dismissing 
          Case, Madrid v. Cate, U.S. Dist. Ct. No. Dist. Of Cal. (No. C 
          90-3094 THE) (March 21, 2011).



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               will be established within the Office of the Inspector 
               General.  . . .  The BIR will perform a real time 
               evaluation of every CDC abuse of force and employee 
               ethics related internal affairs case, including all 
               code of silence cases.  The real time evaluation will 
               include reviewing the charging documents, the 
               investigation plan, the progress, quality, and 
               timeliness of the investigation, the investigative 
               findings, the discipline imposed by the hiring 
               authority, and all SPB hearings, appeals, and other 
               actions related to employee discipline.  The BIR
               will also have authority to initiate special 
               investigations and to investigate the
               absence of charging documents where appropriate.  The 
               BIR will prepare periodic
               reports to the Governor, Legislature, and the Court 
               and provide a transparency to
               the employee discipline process that has been lacking 
               in the past.<5>
                
          In his March 21, 2011, order terminating  Madrid  , Judge Henderson 
          stated in part:

               At the hearing and in papers filed with the Court, 
               Plaintiffs and OIG expressed
               concern about the sustainability of the Madrid 
               reforms.  Plaintiffs stated that BIR oversight is 
               ----------------------
          <5> In his 2004 report, the Special Master specifically noted 
          that Michael Gennaco, who headed the Office of Independent 
          Review that monitors the internal affairs investigations of the 
          Los Angeles County Sheriff, was appointed the Court's expert to 
          assist the parties with the remedial process involving the 
          establishment of the BIR.  In its November 2011 report, the 
          Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes quoted Mr. Gennaco's 
          views on OIG employees being peace officers:  "'The distinction 
          between us and the state OIG is this: We don't work for anybody, 
          and that independence is key for us. We don't have peace officer 
          status,' Gennaco said. 'We don't feel we need peace officer 
          status - we never asked for it, we never needed it, we don't 
          want it.'"



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               critical to maintaining the progress made during the 
               long history of this case and expressed concern about 
               Defendants' commitment to BIR oversight. However, they 
               acknowledged that the conditions at Pelican Bay do not 
               currently violate the constitution.







































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               This Court, too, is concerned about a reversion to the 
               unconstitutional practices that once existed at 
               Pelican Bay. The Court is proud of the work done 
               during the life of this case.  Pelican Bay was once a 
               place where prison officials used force "for the very 
               purpose of inflicting punishment and pain." Madrid, 
               889 F. Supp. at 1200.  BIR's oversight of prison 
               personnel investigations and discipline helped change 
               these conditions.  The Court hopes that CDCR will 
               honor its commitment to continue working with BIR, and 
               that it will oppose any effort to dismantle BIR's 
               oversight.<6>

          As described in detail above, this bill would retain the 
          substantive duties of the BIR in its restructured Office of 
          Correctional Oversight.

          6.  Warden Vetting

           Until the correctional agency restructuring of 2005, wardens 
          were subject to Senate confirmation.  In SB 737 (Romero) (Ch. 
          10, Stats. 2005), warden confirmation was repealed, and instead 
          a "Jenny" type process - that is, one similar to the process for 
          vetting judicial nominees - was established:

               (Governor's Reorganization Plan 1) would eliminate 
               Senate confirmation for            wardens.  This bill 
               would retain that change, and supplement it with the 
               additional Senate confirmations noted above.  In 
               addition, this bill would establish a vetting process 
               through the Office of Inspector General for 
               prospective "warden" - under            this bill, 
               "chief operating officer" -- appointments.  The 
               procedure would be similar to the Judicial Nominee 
               Evaluation process.  Under this bill, the Inspector 
               General would issue a recommendation to the Governor 
               to become public only if the appointment is made 



               ----------------------


               ----------------------
          <6> Id.



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               notwithstanding a "not qualified" finding.<7>

          The bill now before the Committee would retain this function in 
          the restructured Office of Independent Correctional Oversight, 
          and would require the office to promulgate rules and procedures 
          for this function no later than December 31, 2012.

          SHOULD THE WARDEN VETTING RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OIG CONTINUE, 
          AS PROPOSED BY THIS BILL?

          7.  C-ROB
           As part of AB 900 (Solorio)(Ch. 7, Stats. 2007), the California 
          Rehabilitation Oversight Board ("C-ROB") was established in the 
          OIG to "regularly examine the various mental health, substance 
          abuse, educational, and employment programs for inmates and 
          parolees operated by























































          ---------------------------
          <7> Senate Committee on Public Safety Analysis of SB 737 
          (Romero), April 5, 2005.  








          CDCR, as specified.  The bill now before the Committee would 
          retain this function in the restructured Office of Independent 
          Correctional Oversight.

          SHOULD THE C-ROB CREATED BY AB 900 BE RETAINED, AS PROPOSED BY 
          THIS BILL?    


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