BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1050
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 9, 2013
Counsel: Stella Choe
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Tom Ammiano, Chair
AB 1050 (Dickinson) - As Amended: March 14, 2013
As Proposed to be Amended in Committee
SUMMARY : Requires the Board of State and Community Corrections
(BSCC), in consultation with the California State Association of
Counties, California Sheriffs Association, Chief Probation
Officers of California, and the Administrative Office of the
Courts, to develop definitions of key terms, which include, but
are not limited to, "recidivism," "average daily population,"
"treatment program completion rates," and any other terms deemed
relevant in order to facilitate consistency in local data
collection, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based
practices, promising evidence-based practices, and
evidence-based programs.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the BSCC, an entity independent of the Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The Governor may appoint
an executive officer of the BSCC, subject to Senate
confirmation, who shall hold the office at the pleasure of the
Governor. The executive officer shall be the administrative
head of the BSCC and shall exercise all duties and functions
necessary to ensure that the responsibilities of the BSCC are
successfully discharged. As of July 1, 2012, all references
to the Board of Corrections or the Corrections Standards
Authority (CSA) shall refer to the BSCC, and as of that date
the CSA is abolished. [Penal Code Section 6024(a).]
2)States that the mission of BSCC shall include providing
statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance
to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships
in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice system,
including addressing gang problems. This mission shall reflect
the principle of aligning fiscal policy and correctional
practices, including, but not limited to prevention,
intervention, suppression, supervision, and incapacitation, to
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promote a justice investment strategy that fits each county
and is consistent with the integrated statewide goal of
improved public safety through cost-effective, promising, and
evidence-based strategies for managing criminal justice
populations. [Penal Code Section 6024(b).]
3)States that it shall be the duty of BSCC to collect and
maintain available information and data about state and
community correctional policies, practices, capacities, and
needs, including, but not limited to, prevention,
intervention, suppression, supervision, and incapacitation, as
they relate to both adult corrections, juvenile justice, and
gang problems. BSCC shall seek to collect and make publicly
available up-to-date data and information reflecting the
impact of state and community correctional, juvenile justice,
and gang-related policies and practices enacted in the state,
as well as information and data concerning promising and
evidence-based practices from other jurisdictions. [Penal
Code Section 6027(a).]
4)Requires BSCC to do all of the following [Penal Code Section
6027(b)]:
a) Develop recommendations for the improvement of criminal
justice and delinquency and gang prevention activity
throughout the state;
b) Identify, promote, and provide technical assistance
relating to evidence-based programs, practices, and
promising and innovative projects consistent with the
mission of the BSCC;
c) Receive and disburse federal funds, and perform all
necessary and appropriate services in the performance of
its duties as established by federal acts;
d) Develop comprehensive, unified, and orderly procedures
to ensure that applications for grants are processed
fairly, efficiently, and in a manner consistent with the
mission of the BSCC;
e) Identify delinquency and gang intervention and
prevention grants that have the same or similar program
purpose, are allocated to the same entities, serve the same
target populations, and have the same desired outcomes for
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the purpose of consolidating grant funds and programs and
moving toward a unified single delinquency intervention and
prevention grant application process in adherence with all
applicable federal guidelines and mandates;
f) Cooperate with and render technical assistance to the
Legislature, state agencies, units of general local
government, combinations of those units, or other public or
private agencies, organizations, or institutions in matters
relating to criminal justice and delinquency prevention;
g) Develop incentives for units of local government to
develop comprehensive regional partnerships whereby
adjacent jurisdictions pool grant funds in order to deliver
services to a broader target population and maximize the
impact of state funds at the local level;
h) Conduct evaluation studies of the programs and
activities assisted by the federal acts;
i) Identify and evaluate state, local, and federal gang and
youth violence suppression, intervention, and prevention
programs and strategies, along with funding for those
efforts. The BSCC shall assess and make recommendations
for the coordination of the state's programs, strategies,
and funding that address gang and youth violence in a
manner that maximizes the effectiveness and coordination of
those programs, strategies, and resources. By January 1,
2014, the BSCC shall develop funding allocation policies to
ensure that within three years no less than 70% of funding
for gang and youth violence suppression, intervention, and
prevention programs and strategies is used in programs that
utilize promising and proven evidence-based principles and
practices. The BSCC shall communicate with local agencies
and programs in an effort to promote the best
evidence-based principles and practices for addressing gang
and youth violence through suppression, intervention, and
prevention;
j) The BSCC shall collect from each county the plan
submitted for the 2011 public safety realignment within two
months of adoption by the county boards of supervisors.
Commencing January 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, the
BSCC shall collect and analyze available data regarding the
implementation of the local plans and other outcome-based
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measures, as defined by the BSCC in consultation with the
Administrative Office of the Courts, the Chief Probation
Officers of California, and the California State Sheriffs
Association. By July 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, the
BSCC shall provide to the Governor and the Legislature a
report on the implementation of the plans described above;
and,
aa) Commencing on and after July 1, 2012, the BSCC, in
consultation with the Administrative Office of the Courts,
the California State Association of Counties, the
California State Sheriffs Association, and the Chief
Probation Officers of California, shall support the
development and implementation of first phase baseline and
ongoing data collection instruments to reflect the local
impact of the 2011 public safety realignment, specifically
related to dispositions for felony offenders and
postrelease community supervision. The BSCC shall make any
data collected pursuant to this paragraph available on the
BSCC's Internet Web site. It is the intent of the
Legislature that BSCC promote collaboration and the
reduction of duplication of data collection and reporting
efforts where possible.
5)Authorizes BSCC to do either of the following [Penal Code
Section 6027(c)]:
a) Collect, evaluate, publish, and disseminate statistics
and other information on the condition and progress of
criminal justice in the state; or,
b) Perform other functions and duties as required by
federal acts, rules, regulations, or guidelines in acting
as the administrative office of the state planning agency
for distribution of federal grants.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "AB 1050 is a
step towards implementing the LAO recommendation about BSCC
realignment data collection, to ensure uniformity and
accountability. The bill would require the Board to work with
relevant stakeholders such as probation chiefs, the
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Administrative Office of the Courts and state sheriffs to
determine terms deemed relevant to facilitate consistency in
local data collection and evaluation. Taking this step will
enhance our ability to understand what is and is not working
and where efforts should be focused to maximize the goals and
objectives of public safety realignment."
2)Background : According to the background materials provided by
the author, "Currently, the BSCC distributes surveys to
sheriffs who report various statistics about their inmate
populations, and information related to the implementation of
2011 realignment. The BSCC intends to expand the types of
data it collects and eventually post the information it
receives on-line. However, the LAO states that the surveys do
not collect much information on the outcomes of local CCP
[Community Corrections Partnership] programs, such as
completion rates for treatment programs or offender recidivism
rates.
"In addition to being somewhat limited in the types of
information the BSCC surveys and collects, there is little, if
any guidance as to how the data should be collected, and the
specific measurements that should be used in the collection of
data. In essence, the BSCC leaves it up to individual
counties to determine how to measure and report outcomes such
as recidivism, and drug treatment success. For example,
agencies vary on the length of time they track offenders,
whether they count re-arrest or reconviction as recidivism,
and whether they continue to track offenders after they are
discharged from supervision. This variation defeats the
ability of policy-makers and the public to determine how well
any particular county is doing, as compared to outcomes in
other counties and/or statewide averages. In the end
accountability is circumscribed and it may be difficult to
accurately understand the effectiveness of public safety
realignment."
3)Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) Report : "Chapter 36,
Statutes of 2011 (SB 92, Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), established the BSCC, effective July 1, 2012. From
2005 through 2012, BSCC was the Correction Standards
Authority, a division of CDCR. Prior to that it was the Board
of Corrections, an independent state department. The BSCC is
responsible for administering various criminal justice grant
programs and ensuring compliance with state and federal
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standards in the operation of local correctional facilities.
It is also responsible for providing technical assistance to
local authorities and collecting data related to the outcomes
of criminal justice policies and practices." [LAO, The
2013-14 Budget: The Governor's Criminal Justice Proposals, p.
44 (Feb. 15, 2013).]
"In creating BSCC, the Legislature added two responsibilities to
the board's core mission: (1) assisting local entities to
adopt best practices to improve criminal justice outcomes and
(2) collecting and analyzing data related to criminal justice
outcomes in the state." (Id. at pp. 44-45.)
The LAO reports that "the BSCC has not yet played an active role
in facilitating the adoption of evidence-based programs.
Instead, the board plans to respond to requests for assistance
from local agencies as requests arise. However, we believe
more is required in order to fulfill the Legislature's intent
when giving BSCC its technical assistance mission, which was
to proactively encourage and facilitate the adoption of
evidence-based practices across the state." (Id. at pp.
45-46.)
The LAO also reports that "BSCC has not yet developed a
longer-term plan to fulfill its data collection mission.
Developing a longer-term data collection strategy could
promote better public safety by ensuring that policymakers
have useful information they need to make decisions about
programs, policies, and funding priorities. Importantly,
however, BSCC's role in data collection should be focused, in
particular, on providing local accountability. To the extent
that useful information is available to local
stakeholders-corrections managers, county elected officials,
local media, and the public-local governments can be held
accountable for their outcomes and expenditures. Because
decisions about how to manage most corrections populations are
inherently local decisions, the focus of accountability should
be local. For this reason, the role of BSCC in the long term
should not principally be to collect data for the sake of
informing the state of what is happening locally. Instead,
the role of BSCC should be to facilitate local accountability,
such as by providing transparency and uniformity in how local
entities report outcomes." (Id. at p. 47.)
The LAO makes the following recommendations to help ensure
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BSCC's progress in fulfilling its new mission:
a) Technical Assistance Plan: "We recommend that the
Legislature direct BSCC to submit, by January 1, 2014, a
technical assistance plan that includes (1) a description
of specific educational programs, training sessions,
outreach visits, and on-site technical assistance that BSCC
will provide to local governments, as well as a timeline
for when these services will be available; and (2) a
timeline for creating and maintaining an online
clearinghouse that would make literature related to
implementing evidence-based criminal justice programs
available to state and local practitioners."
b) Report on Near-Term Data Collection Strategy: "We
recommend that the Legislature approve the Governor's
proposal for additional staffing in BSCC. In particular,
we find the additional research staff proposed would help
ensure that BSCC has qualified staff to pursue its data
collection mission. We further recommend that BSCC report
at budget hearings on its near-term data collection plan,
including how the board plans to utilize its new research
unit and what specific changes it plans to make to its data
collection instruments."
c) Longer-Term Data Working Group: "We recommend directing
BSCC to convene a working group to identify a data and
accountability system that is as comprehensive, uniform,
and accessible as is reasonable given limited state and
local resources. This would include (1) identifying the
key outcomes and other measures that all counties should
collect, (2) clearly defining these measures to ensure that
all counties collect them uniformly, and (3) developing a
process for counties to report the data and for BSCC to
make the data available to the public. This should include
exploring the feasibility of developing a more
comprehensive statewide case management system, including
determining the overall costs, potential funding sources,
implementation challenges, and the potential fiscal and
programmatic benefits to counties. The working group
should include representatives from state and local
criminal justice agencies, the Legislature, the courts,
state agencies with information technology expertise, and
the research community. We also recommend the Legislature
adopt budget bill language directing the working group to
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prepare a report detailing its findings by no later than
December 1, 2014." (Id. at p. 49.)
4)Argument in Support : The American Civil Liberties Union
states, "The Board of State and Community Corrections
(hereinafter 'BSCC') absorbed the responsibilities of the
now-defunct Corrections Standards Authority in July 2012.
BSCC is tasked with, among other things, collecting data on
the implementation of Realignment to be made available in a
centralized location. (Cal. Penal Code � 6027, subd. (b).)
However, counties are not required to provide BSCC with
updated data on statistics such as use of flash incarceration,
rates of violation of parole and for what offense, or average
charge or sentence, although many choose to do so on a
voluntary bases.
"Moreover, several terms are not defined in the statute that
authorizes the BSCC to collect data, yet are required to
establish appropriate benchmarks and outcomes. For instance,
the phrase 'recidivism reduction' is a laudable yardstick in
determining whether a program is successful, but that phrase
may mean many different things. Having concrete definitions
of relevant data points will facilitate greater rates of
information gathering and allow greater ease in drawing
conclusions based on such data. By tracking the success of
evidence based practices, counties can learn from each other
what works and what does not."
5)Related Legislation : AB 909 (Gray) requires the BSCC to
establish a Metal Theft Task Force to provide grants to
regional task forces for the purpose of providing the tools to
combat metal theft. AB 909 will be heard by the Committee
today.
6)Prior Legislation :
a) AB 526 (Dickinson), Chapter 850, Statutes of 2012,
requires the BSCC to identify and consolidate gang
intervention and delinquency prevention programs and grants
and focus funding on evidenced-based practices.
b) SB 92 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter 36,
Statutes of 2011, starting July 1, 2012, eliminates the
CSA, and assigns its former duties to the newly created
12-member BSCC and assigns additional duties, as provided.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Civil Liberties Union of California
Opposition
None
Analysis Prepared by : Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744