BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 759 (Anderson) - Prisoners: Secured Housing Units
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Version: May 5, 2015 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 6 - 1 |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Hearing Date: May 18, 2015 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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
SB 759 (Anderson) Page 1 of
?
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
SB 759 (Anderson) Page 2 of
?
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
SB 759 (Anderson) Page 3 of
?
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.
SB 759 (Anderson) Page 4 of
?
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.
-- END --