BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 601
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Date of Hearing: June 30, 2015
Counsel: Gabriel Caswell
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Bill Quirk, Chair
SB
601 (Hancock) - As Amended April 20, 2015
SUMMARY: Requires the Secretary of the Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation develop a Corrections
Accountability Report on January 10, March 15, and a fiscal
year-end report, containing specified information regarding each
institution, including, among other information, the total
budget, including actual expenditures, staff vacancies and the
number of authorized staff positions, overtime, sick leave, and
the average length of lockdowns, and to post those reports on
the department's Internet Web site, as provided. Specifically,
this bill:
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1)Provides that the Secretary of the Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation shall develop a Corrections Accountability
Report for each institution on January 10, March 15, and a
fiscal year-end report and post those reports on the
department's website. The department shall post both current
fiscal-year reports and reports for the immediately preceding
three fiscal years for each institution. The department shall
also post corrections made to inaccurate or incomplete data to
current or previous reports.
2)Specifies that each report shall include the three-year
statewide recidivism rate, a brief biography of the warden,
including whether he or she is an acting or permanent warden,
contact information for the warden, and a brief description of
the prison, including the total number of inmates.
3)Specifies that each report shall be created using, when
possible, information collected using the Compstat (computer
assisted statistics) reports for each prison, or other
verifiable information collected by the department, and shall
include, but not be limited to, all of the following
indicators:
a) Total budget, including actual expenditures, staff
vacancies, overtime, sick leave, and number of authorized
staff positions;
b) Rehabilitation programs, including capacity, enrollment,
and diploma and GED completion rate;
c) Average length of lockdowns;
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d) Number of deaths, specifying homicides, suicides,
unexpected deaths, and expected deaths;
e) Number of use of force incidents;
f) Number of inmate appeals, including the number being
processed, overdue, and dismissed;
g) Number of inmates in administrative segregation; and
h) Total contraband seized, specifying the number of
cellular telephones.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Creates in state government, the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), headed by a Secretary
who is appointed by the Governor, subject to Senate
confirmation, and serves at the pleasure of the Governor.
CDCR consists of Adult Operations, Adult Programs, Juvenile
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Justice, the Corrections Standards Authority, the Board of
Parole Hearings, the State Commission on Juvenile Justice, the
Prison Industry Authority, and the Prison Industry Board.
(Gov. Code, § 12838, subd. (a).) As explained in the
Legislative Analyst's Office Analysis of the Governor's
2015-16 Proposed Budget: The CDCR is responsible for the
incarceration of adult felons, including the provision of
training, education, and health care services. As of February
4, 2015, CDCR housed about 132,000 adult inmates in the
state's prison system. Most of these inmates are housed in
the state's 34 prisons and 43 conservation camps. About
15,000 inmates are housed in either in-state or out-of-state
contracted prisons. The department also supervises and treats
about 44,000 adult parolees and is responsible for the
apprehension of those parolees who commit new offenses or
parole violations. In addition, about 700 juvenile offenders
are housed in facilities operated by CDCR's Division of
Juvenile Justice, which includes three facilities and one
conservation camp. The Governor's budget proposes total
expenditures of $10.3 billion ($10 billion General Fund) for
CDCR operations in 2015-16.
2)Provides that the Governor, upon recommendation of the
Secretary, shall appoint the wardens of the various state
prisons. Each warden shall be subject to removal by the
secretary. If the Secretary removes him or her, the
secretary's action shall be final. The warden shall be exempt
from civil service. (Pen. Code, § 6050, subd. (a).)
3)Authorizes the Inspector General (IG) to conduct a management
review audit of any warden in CDCR or superintendent in the
Division of Juvenile Justice. The management review audit
shall include, but not be limited to, issues relating to
personnel, training, investigations, and financial matters.
Each management review audit shall include an assessment of
the maintenance of the facility managed by the warden or
superintendent. The audit report shall be submitted to the
Secretary of CDCR for evaluation and for any response deemed
necessary. Any Member of the Legislature or the public may
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request and shall be provided with a copy of any audit by the
Inspector General, including a management review audit or a
special audit or review. A report that involves potential
criminal investigations or prosecution or security practices
and procedures shall be considered confidential, and its
disclosure shall not be required under this section. (Pen.
Code, § 6051.)
4)States that the IG shall audit each warden of an institution
one year after his or her appointment, and shall audit each
correctional institution at least once every four years. Each
audit shall include, but not be limited to, issues relating to
personnel, training, investigations, and financial matters.
Each audit shall include an assessment of the maintenance of
the facility managed by the warden. The audit report shall
include the IG's assessment of facility maintenance. These
audit reports shall be provided to the Legislature and shall
be made public. The requirements of this paragraph shall be
phased in by the IG so that they are fully met by July 1,
2009. (Pen. Code, § 6126 subd. (a)(2).)
5)Specifies that the Secretary of the Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation is required to establish the Case
Management Reentry Pilot Program for offenders under the
jurisdiction of the department who have been sentenced to a
term of imprisonment under Section 1170 and are likely to
benefit from a case management reentry strategy designed to
address homelessness, joblessness, mental disorders, and
developmental disabilities among offenders transitioning from
prison into the community, as specified. The department is
required to submit a final report of the findings from its
evaluation of the pilot program to the Legislature and the
Governor no later than three years after the enactment of
Assembly Bill 1457 or Senate Bill 851 of the 201314 Regular
Session. (Pen. Code § 3016.)
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FISCAL EFFECT:
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: According to the author, "SB 601
establishes a framework for providing better public access to
key information about the performance of California's prison
system by displaying a user friendly quarterly report on the
CDCR webpage."
2)Author's Background: According to the background submitted by
the author, "SB 601 intends to develop an accessible quarterly
report that highlights management and performance of each
state prison for legislative use. By requiring the Secretary
of the CDCR to repackage the data to post online, the public
and the Legislature could hold the department accountable for
the overall management of the correctional facility, including
administrative services, expenditures, safety and security,
and program and support services."
3)Comstat: Comstat (short for "computer statistics") is an
organizational management tool modeled after the Los Angeles
and the New York Police Departments to monitor and reduce
crimes and is easily accessible to the public. In 2006, the
CDCR designed and implemented Compstat to monitor and provide
operational review of prisons, parole, and CDCR as a whole.
As part of Governor Schwarzenegger's government transparency
efforts in 2009, the Compstat reports were moved from the
CDCR's Web site and made available on the Reporting
Transparency in Government's Web site; however, the Compstat
reports and audits are hard for the public to find and view
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among the thicket of reports on that site. In addition, the
Compstat audits and reports are non-descriptive and difficult
to understand. This bill is intended to make Comstat
information more readily accessible and easier to understand.
4)Independent Review Panel Recommendations: For the last
several years the CDCR has been the subject of a great deal of
scrutiny and criticism. In March of 2004 then-Governor
Schwarzenegger announced the creation of an "Independent
Review Panel" ("IRP") led by former Governor George Deukmejian
to examine ways to improve adult and youth corrections in
California. In June of 2004 the IRP released its report,
urging in part the establishment of "a system of
accountability that includes performance measures by which to
evaluate employees and monitor levels of achievement."<1> The
IRP, which assessed a state correctional system prior to the
reorganization approved in 2005,<2> stated in part:
To a significant extent, the problems of California's
Correctional system grow out of its structure. The
Secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency,
for example, has no control over line operations.
Instead, the state's 32 prison wardens and eight
juvenile institution superintendents each operate
independently, with little consistency in procedures
and minimal help from headquarters. Lines of
responsibility are blurred by layers of bureaucracy
between managers and functions. Accountability is
conspicuously absent, as is transparency for the
public into the system's inner workings. Clear,
uniform policies governing the system's most vital
----------------------
<1>
Report of the Independent Corrections Review Panel (June
2004), p. 26. The report is available online at
http://cpr.ca.gov/Review_Panel/.
<2> The reorganization of the corrections agency was codified
in SB 737 (Romero), Ch. 10 Stats. 2005.
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functions - fiscal matters, personnel and training,
internal affairs, information technology, and health
care - are equally lacking. Boards, commissions, and
other entities that have evolved over the decades
perform duplicate and overlapping functions. And the
system's organizational structure has not kept pace
with the massive growth in inmate population or with
the vast geographical spread of the institutions.
The sheer size and complexity of the correctional
system, the critical nature of its mission, and the
severity of the problems dictate the need for
wholesale reform, and that reform should begin with
the system's organizational structure. The Corrections
Independent Review Panel therefore proposes that the
state's correctional agencies be reorganized according
to the plan described in this chapter. While the
restructuring alone will not produce the necessary
reforms, it will serve as the foundation for cleaning
up the prison system, reining in costs, curbing
misconduct, holding correctional administrators
accountable for the system's performance, and making
communities safer by doing more to ensure that inmates
and youth wards leave custody better prepared to
function in society.<3>
The IRP, which recommended a restructuring that "'flattens' the
organization by removing layers of bureaucracy that have
obscured lines of authority and accountability between top
managers and the functions for which they are responsible,"<4>
identified the following management principles as key to
reforming the state's correctional system, and in particular
recommended:
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<3> Id, p. 1 (emphasis added).
<4> Id. p. 4.
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Transforming the culture of the Department of
Corrections and the California Youth Authority into
one in which personal integrity and loyalty to the
department mission consistently take precedence over
loyalty to co-workers suspected of wrongdoing,
requires a vigorous, multi-pronged approach. The
effort should be guided by quality management
principles incorporating clear objectives and purpose;
key performance measures; consistent monitoring; and a
system of correction and reward. Quality management
principles accomplish the following:
Provide clarity of purpose in each employee's
job;
Link each person's work to the department's
mission;
Foster continual improvement;
Bring accountability to all department
levels.<5>
With respect to management staff, the IRP stated the department
"must provide supervisors, managers, and executive management
every possible opportunity to succeed.
These individuals must be given a clear understanding
of the responsibilities of their positions. They must
also receive performance evaluations to ensure that
they grow in their positions and know how to improve
their performance. To accomplish that purpose, the
Department of Correctional Services should take the
following actions:
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<5> Id., p. 20-21 (emphasis added).
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Develop specific job objectives in the
job description for all managers, and executives,
and rate job performance by these objectives at
least annually. The specific job objectives and
method of rating job performance must be
standardized to ensure consistency. . . .
These basic management steps must be
incorporated into the performance evaluations of each
manager and evaluated at least annually. Clear
standards lead to better accountability of employee
actions and help identify employees who need further
training or mentorship. . . . <6>
Specifically with respect to wardens, the report states:
To provide a model for exceptional performance by
wardens Secretary Lehman of the Washington State
Department of Corrections noted:
There are five questions to ask top performing
wardens to find out how effectively they deal
with an issue: (1) What alternatives or options
were considered? (2) What were the expected
results? (3) What data was tracked? (4) What
barriers were encountered? (5) What actions were
taken to improve the problem?<7>
Following the IRP report, in 2005 Governor Schwarzenegger
proposed to reorganize what then was the "Youth and Adult
Correctional Agency." Accountability was a key goal of the
proposed reorganization:
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<6> Id., p. 75.
<7> Id. p. 94.
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Restructuring will establish clear lines of reporting,
accountability and responsibility and performance
assessment that will improve services, reduce the
likelihood of repeat offenses and eliminate abuses
within the current system. It will centralize
services and activities to remove duplication and
leverage the scale of the Department's $6 billion
spending authority, thus reducing the cost of
operations. The reorganization will deliver a safer
society at less cost to the people of California.<8>
In its report assessing the Governor's proposed reorganization,
the Little Hoover Commission stated in part:
The plan clarifies and strengthens the chain of
command from the secretary to the prison wardens and
Youth Authority superintendents, who under the current
system operate with little accountability to the
secretary or loyalty to the organization. Wardens and
superintendents will report to the secretary through a
division director and chief deputy secretary and will
not require Senate confirmation. The proposed
reorganization would give the secretary necessary
authority over all activities in the agency and its
subordinate departments, thereby increasing the
ability of the Governor, lawmakers and the public to
hold the secretary accountable for the performance of
correctional programs.
----------------------
<8> Governor's Reorganization Plan, Reforming California's
Youth & Adult Correctional Agency (Appendix "A," Reconstructing
Government: A Review of the Governor's Reorganization Plan:
Reforming California's Youth and Adult Correctional Agency,
Little Hoover Commission (Feb. 2005).
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. . . The lack of a unified structure for prison work
and education programs has diminished their
effectiveness. The longstanding practice of allowing
prisons to operate independently has hindered
accountability and hampered the standardization of
policies, contributing to inmate abuse and expensive
lawsuits.<9>
With respect to wardens prior to the 2005 reorganization, the
Little Hoover Commission noted:
Under the current system, the Secretary reports to the
Governor, but he does not have the actual power to
change the operations of the Department of Corrections
and the California Youth Authority that administer the
correctional institutions. As a result, the Governor
cannot truly hold the Secretary accountable for the
performance of the correctional system or enact major
reforms in the way prisons are administered. Nor can
the Secretary dismiss a warden of an institution.
Currently the system's 32 wardens and eight
superintendents do not report directly into the
Secretary. Each warden employs different standards
and different operating procedures. This
decentralized framework, along with Senate
confirmation of wardens, has helped create a system of
operational silos with little accountability or
sharing of best practices outside the facility
walls.<10>
1)SB 601 (2011) Hancock: Senator Hancock sponsored SB 601 in
2011 which required the Secretary of the Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation to develop a Corrections
Accountability Report on January 10, March 15, and a fiscal
---------------------------
<9> Id (emphasis added).
<10> Id. (emphasis added).
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year-end report, containing specified information regarding
each institution, including, among other information, the
total budget, including actual expenditures, staff vacancies
and the number of authorized staff positions, overtime, sick
leave, and the average length of lockdowns, and to post those
reports on the department's Internet website. The bill was
vetoed by Governor Brown with the following veto message:
" This measure would require the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation to post on its website prescribed information
and reports and to update them every four months.
"This measure is unnecessary and redundant; existing law
already requires the Department to provide this information. I
am happy to work with the author on ways the Department could
better organize its website, but I don't think this takes a
law."
2)Argument in Support: According to Legal Services for
Prisoners with Children, "SB 601's 'data dashboard' would
provide a much more accurate picture of CDCR policy and
procedure to lawmakers. Further, by requiring the CDCR to
publish the 'data dashboard' on their website on a quarterly
basis, SB 601 involves the general public and establishes a
more meaningful system of accountability within California's
correctional system. By increasing the ability of the public,
lawmakers, and the Governor to each hold the CDCR accountable
for the performance of correctional programs, SB 601's 'data
dashboard' will ultimately allow for more responsible policy
and more effective reform to follow."
3)Prior Legislation: SB 601 (Hancock) of the 2011-2012
Legislative Session, required the Secretary of the Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation to develop a Corrections
Accountability Report on January 10, March 15, and a fiscal
year-end report, containing specified information regarding
each institution, including, among other information, the
total budget, including actual expenditures, staff vacancies
and the number of authorized staff positions, overtime, sick
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leave, and the average length of lockdowns, and to post those
reports on the department's Internet website. SB 601 was
vetoed by Governor Brown.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Opposition
None
Analysis Prepared by:Gabriel Caswell / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
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