BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1238
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 8, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1238 (Weber) - As Amended: April 25, 2013
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) to establish up to five reentry work
training programs for parolees between 18 and 24 years of age to
assist in community reintegration upon discharge from prison.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Specifies reentry programs may include construction training,
academic services, counseling and mentoring, and tracking of
graduates after completion of the program.
2)Requires CDCR to maintain statistical information related to
the reentry programs and report to the Legislature, as
specified.
3)Sunsets these provisions January 1, 2017.
FISCAL EFFECT
Assuming the intent of this bill is to provide state support to
existing non-state programs, based on previous iterations of
this bill, and based on figures from the 2011-12 California
Youthful Offender Reentry (Cal-YOR) grant program when one-time
federal funding provide $3.7 million and enrolled 411 youthful
offenders at a cost of about $105 per day, the annual cost for a
similar scale program at $105 per day for an average-daily
population of 411 offenders would be about $15.6 million. Cost
estimates depend on the length of the program and the number of
participants.
Cal-EMA received $3.7 million in one-time federal funds (Byrne
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Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) and Residential Substance Abuse
Treatment (RSAT) grants) for a Cal-YOR grant program in 2010,
and funded nine programs at $411,379 per program.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author's intent is to codify a youth re-entry
program such as Cal-YOR, which currently exists only as a
one-year federal grant program. The author's intent is not to
create new reentry programs, but to provide support for
existing programs in California, such as YouthBuild.
2)YouthBuild is a national program, based out of Massachusetts
in which low-income young people work toward their GED or high
school diploma while learning job skills by building
affordable housing for homeless and low-income people.
Emphasis is placed on leadership development and community
service. According to the YouthBuild website there are 273
YouthBuild programs in 45 states, Washington, DC, and the
Virgin Islands.
3)Support . According to the California YouthBuild Coalition,
"The California Youthful Offender Reentry Project (Cal-YOR)
awards grants to community based organizations to conduct
innovative reentry programs that stress job training and
education to reduce recidivism rates and provide meaningful
second chances to youth offenders. In California, there are
25 YouthBuild programs, operated by independent
community-based organizations and public entities. Each year,
California Youthbuild programs statewide see an average
recidivism rate of less than 10%, significantly better than
the state rate of 70%.
"Specifically, AB 1238 allows for the pre-screening of young
offenders, between 18 and 24 years of age, 30 days prior to
their release from the Department of Juvenile Justice or
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
facilities for reentry work training programs. For those who
are eligible, they are enrolled into state and federally
approved job training programs, like Youthbuild, where they
receive classroom instruction to obtain their high school
diplomas or equivalent and are offered training in building
trades, counseling and mentoring. Participants of YouthBuild
programs spend half of their program hours helping to build or
refurbish affordable housing and/or improve the energy
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efficiency of houses by installing technologies like
paneling."
4)The one-time federally-funded Cal-YOR program under BSCC
funded nine programs in San Diego (2), San Jose (2), Fresno
(2), L.A. (2), and Lancaster (1) from March 2011 to February
2013. Because the program is a one-time, split-funded program,
Cal-EMA is not requiring additional data reporting and
analysis beyond that required by the federal grants. At this
juncture, Cal-EMA is unable to quantify the success of the
programs.
5)The targeted cohort is not clear . The state no longer
administers DJJ parole; why have CDCR administer a youth
parole program? Under correctional realignment, the Juvenile
Parole Board continues to determine when a youth is
sufficiently rehabilitated to warrant release, but county
courts and probation officials establish and enforce
conditions of supervision.
Moreover, post-realignment, the youngest parolees tend to be
administered by county probation.
6)Measure lacks specificity. Unlike its predecessor bills, this
measure does not reference juvenile wards, it places the
administration of the program under CDCR rather than BSCC, it
makes no reference to programs that may qualify or receive
priority for grant funding, and it makes no reference as to
whether the programs would be voluntary.
7)This is the fifth effort to codify a program of this nature.
a) AB 2414 (Solorio), 2012, required the continuation of
Cal-Yor and was held on this committee's Suspense File.
b) AB 1387 (Solorio), 2011, similar to AB 2414, cleared
this committee's Suspense File but was held on the Senate
Suspense File before being amended to a non-related
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subject.
c) AB 2200 (Solorio), 2010, which established a similar
reentry program, was held on this committee's Suspense
File.
d) AB 1049 (Solorio), 2007, similar to AB 2200, was vetoed.
The governor stated, "?while this bill specifies that the
pilot program shall be created only to the extent that
funds are appropriated for that purpose, it provides no
funding for the actual administrative costs that will be
necessary for the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation to implement the program."
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916)
319-2081