BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   SB 490|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  SB 490
          Author:   Hancock (D), et al.
          Amended:  5/31/11
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE  :  6-0, 05/03/11
          AYES:  Hancock, Calderon, Harman, Liu, Price, Steinberg
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Anderson

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE  :  9-0, 05/26/11
          AYES:  Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Emmerson, Lieu, Pavley, 
            Price, Runner, Steinberg


           SUBJECT  :    Corrections:  Office of the Inspector General

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill restructures the Office of Inspector 
          General and narrows its duties and responsibilities.  This 
          bill removes the Inspector General and other prospective 
          employees from peace officer status, and instead provides 
          them with non-peace officer authority relating to powers of 
          arrest, serving warrants, and access to criminal history 
          information, as specified.

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law creates the independent Office of 
          the Inspector General and provides that it is not a 
          subdivision of any other government entity.  The Inspector 
          General and certain other employees of the office are peace 
          officers provided that the primary duty of these peace 
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          officers is conducting audits of investigatory practices 
          and other audits, as well as conducting investigations, of 
          the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division 
          of Juvenile Justice, and the Board of Parole Hearings.

          This bill removes the Inspector General and the other 
          employees from peace officer status.  The bill authorizes 
          the Inspector General and certain other employees to 
          exercise the powers of arrest and serving warrants, as 
          provided.

          Existing law requires the Inspector General to, among other 
          things, review departmental policy and procedures, conduct 
          audits of investigatory practices and other audits, be 
          responsible for contemporaneous oversight of internal 
          affairs investigations and the disciplinary process, and 
          conduct investigations of the department, and audit each 
          warden of an institution one year after his or her 
          appointment and each correctional institution at least once 
          every four years. Existing law establishes within the 
          Office of the Inspector General a Bureau of Independent 
          Review.  Existing law requires the Inspector General to 
          evaluate and determine the qualifications of each candidate 
          for warden or superintendent, as specified.

          This bill removes the requirement that the Inspector 
          General review departmental policy and procedures, conduct 
          audits of investigatory practices and other audits, and 
          conduct investigations of the department, and instead 
          provide that the Inspector General shall be responsible for 
          contemporaneous oversight of internal affairs 
          investigations and the disciplinary process of the 
          department pursuant to provisions specifying the 
          responsibilities of the Bureau of Independent Review.  The 
          bill removes the requirement of the Inspector General to 
          audit wardens.  The bill requires the Inspector General to 
          conduct an objective, clinically appropriate, and 
          metric-oriented medical inspection program to periodically 
          review delivery of medical care at each state prison.

           Background
          
           Recent Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes Report


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           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 (OIG) 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 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:

                     OIG staffers from the Inspector General on down 
                 are expected to carry a gun and ammunition at all 
                 times they're on duty: at the office, on the road, 

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                 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 
                 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 

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                 Inspector General. 

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

                     California's Attorney General employs 1,150 
                 lawyers.  They don't have take-home cars and only a 
                 handful, fewer than 5, are sworn peace officers.  
                 Just one carries a gun.  None of the AG's 80 
                 auditors are peace officers or get state cars. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes   
          Local:  Yes

          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

                          Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions                2011-12     2012-13    
           2013-14   Fund  
          Narrowing of OIG                                  Savings 
          of $2,800 in 2011-12; savings                          
          General
            duties                 of $5,600 in 2012-13

          Removal of peace officer                          Unknown; 
          potential future cost savings                     General
            status                 of $16 per position

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  6/1/11)

          California Correctional Supervisors Organization


           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office:

               This bill starts the process of eliminating the abuse 

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               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 
               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.  


          RJG:nl  6/1/11   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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