BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                             Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
                            2015 - 2016  Regular  Session

          SB 759 (Anderson) - Prisoners:  Secured Housing Units
          
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          |Version: May 5, 2015            |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 6 - 1      |
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          |Urgency: No                     |Mandate: No                     |
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          |Hearing Date: May 18, 2015      |Consultant: Jolie Onodera       |
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          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 

          

          Bill  
          Summary:  SB 759 would provide for the following activities to  
          increase accountability and transparency in the use of solitary  
          confinement in state prisons:
           Requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation  
            (CDCR) to collect specified data regarding inmates subject to  
            a term in a Secured Housing Unit (SHU).
           Requires the Inspector General (OIG), commencing January 1,  
            2018, and biennially thereafter, to use the data collected by  
            CDCR to prepare reports to the Legislature pertaining to  
            inmates in a SHU, as specified.
           Requires the CDCR to establish regulations to allow specified  
            inmates placed in a SHU, or other similar units, to earn  
            credits, as specified. 





          Fiscal  







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          Impact:  
            CDCR data collection  :  Annual costs potentially in excess of  
            $250,000 (General Fund) for workload associated with data  
            collection and file reviews at the five facilities that have  
            SHUs. 
            OIG biennial reports  :  Annual costs commencing in 2018 of  
            $42,000 (General Fund) for new workload associated with  
            compiling and preparing the biennial report.
            CDCR regulations  :  One-time costs of $100,000 (General Fund)  
            to promulgate regulations.
            SHU credits  :  Potentially significant future cost savings  
            (General Fund) to the extent the regulations are implemented  
            and the provision of good time credits to inmates while in the  
            SHU results in shorter prison sentences. 


          Background:  On October 9, 2013, the Assembly and Senate Committees on  
          Public Safety held a joint informational hearing on California's  
          prison segregation policies. One of the panelists, Margaret  
          Winter, Associate Director of the National Prison Project for  
          the American Civil Liberties Union, reported on the status of  
          the national dialogue of scrutiny, analysis, and reform of the  
          policy and practice of segregated housing in prisons. An article  
          published online by the American Correctional Association noted  
          in part:
              According to Winter, segregation should only be  
              used for those who pose a serious violent threat  
              to others, and only for as short a time as  
              possible. "We can agree that corrections  
              professionals must have the option, in extreme  
              situations, to separate inmates in order to  
              maintain security," she said. "But even when there  
              is compelling need for physical separation for  
              security reasons, that is not justification for  
              extreme social isolation, sensory deprivation or  
              enforced idleness." ?Winter also said that it is  
              crucial for inmates to be able to earn their way  
              out of segregation for good behavior, and that  
              juveniles should never be housed in segregation  
              long term? She indicated that several recent court  
              rulings have deemed the segregation of inmates  
              with disabilities or serious mental illnesses to  
              be a violation of the eighth amendment. "We can  
              expect to see more and more of these cases  








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              challenging segregation, not just for the mentally  
              ill, but for anyone." 

          In summary, this hearing highlighted the widely held principle  
          that while short term segregation is an important tool, long  
          term segregation can have a detrimental impact not only on  
          inmates but also on overall public safety. 

          Under existing law, a person who is placed in a SHU, Psychiatric  
          Services Unit (PSU), Behavioral Management Unit (BMU), or an  
          Administrative Segregation Unit for specified misconduct or upon  
          validation as a prison gang member or associate is ineligible to  
          earn credits during the time he or she is in the SHU, PSU, BMU,  
          or the Administrative Segregation Unit for that misconduct.

          This bill seeks to increase accountability and transparency of  
          the placement of offenders in the SHU through increased data  
          collection, additional review and reporting responsibilities for  
          the OIG. This bill also seeks to allow inmates placed in the  
          SHU, PSU, BMU, or Administrative Segregation Unit to earn good  
          time credits.




          Proposed Law:  
           This bill:
           Requires the CDCR, commencing July 1, 2016, to collect the  
            following data regarding inmates subject to a term in a SHU:
             o    Information relating to each offender who is going  
               through, or has gone through, the validation process for  
               determining a security threat group affiliate.
             o    Information relating to all offenders being housed in a  
               SHU or Psychiatric Services Unit (PSU), as specified.
             o    The number of administrative appeals filed by offenders  
               in the SHU or PSU, the subject matter of the appeals, and  
               the outcome of the appeals.
           Requires the OIG, commencing January 1, 2018, and biennially  
            thereafter, to use the data to prepare reports to the  
            Legislature that include data including but not limited to:
             o    The number of offenders investigated for security threat  
               group validation.
             o    The number of cases in which the Office of Correctional  
               Safety recommended against validation and the outcome of  








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               those cases.
             o    The number of cases in which the security threat group  
               committee decided not to validate the offender.
             o    The number of offenders who were not initially placed in  
               the SHU or PSU but were sent to the SHU or PSU within six  
               months of validation.
             o    The number of offenders placed for an indeterminate SHU  
               term or PSU, or both.
             o    The number of offenders placed for a determinate SHU  
               term or in the PSU.
             o    The average length of time offenders serving an  
               indeterminate SHU term spent in the SHU or the PSU, or  
               both.
             o    The number of offenders in the SHU and PSU who were  
               paroled directly out of the SHU and PSU into the community.
             o    The number of visits by persons other than staff to  
               offenders in the SHU or PSU.
             o    The number of phone calls provided to offenders in the  
               SHU or PSU.
           Deletes existing statute prohibiting inmates in the SHU, PSU,  
            BMU, and the Administrative Segregation Unit from earning  
            credits.
           Requires the CDCR to establish regulations to allow specified  
            inmates placed in a SHU, or other similar units, to earn  
            credits, as specified.
             o    Provides that the regulations may establish separate  
               classifications of serious disciplinary infractions to  
               determine the rate of restoration of credits, the time  
               period required before forfeited credits may be restored,  
               and the percentage of forfeited credits that may be  
               restored, as specified.
             o    Requires the regulations to provide for credit earning  
               for inmates who successfully complete specific program  
               performance objectives.
             o    Specifies no credits shall be awarded to those inmates  
               until the CDCR has adopted regulations, as specified.


          Prior  
          Legislation:  SB 892 (Hancock) 2014 would have placed additional  
          due process procedures for determining whether a prison inmate  
          is a member of, or an associate of, a gang, for purposes of  
          placing the inmate in a SHU. This bill was ordered to the  
          inactive file on the Assembly Floor.








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          Staff  
          Comments:  The CDCR has indicated the provisions of this measure  
          will result in new workload that cannot be absorbed within  
          existing resources. Because specified data points required in  
          the bill are not currently being collected in CDCR's electronic  
          tracking systems, the information will require manual file  
          reviews. While some information is recorded in electronic files,  
          the data points are not specifically available in reports  
          generated by the current electronic systems. The CDCR estimates  
          that additional personnel would be needed to collect the data  
          that is not currently being collected in any of its electronic  
          tracking systems, to do file reviews to compile additional  
          information, and to conduct comparisons of data from different  
          tracking systems and manual files. The CDCR has indicated one  
          additional position at each of the five SHU facilities and one  
          additional staff at CDCR headquarters would cost in excess of  
          $550,000 (General Fund) annually.  
          To the extent these designated positions could complete the  
          ongoing required workload on a half-time basis would result in  
          annual costs of about $250,000.




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