BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1387
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 18, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1387 (Solorio) - As Amended: April 25, 2011
Policy Committee: Public Safety
Vote: 7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Emergency Management Agency
(Cal-EMA) - to establish a Youthful Offender Reentry (Cal-YOR)
competitive grant program targeting economically disadvantaged
youths between the ages of 16 and 23, upon their parole or
discharge from a state or local correctional facility.
Gang-affiliated youth shall have priority. Specifically, this
bill:
Requires that priority be given to existing local programs, and
defines eligible programs as programs that offer education,
counseling, substance abuse treatment and job training services,
focusing on work experience and skills training apprenticeships
related to housing construction for low-income families.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown costs for grants to youthful offender reentry
programs, presumably from the hundreds of thousands of dollars
to millions of dollars. The program is contingent upon a
subsequent appropriation for this purpose.
2)Administrative costs for a $2 million grant program would be
in the range of $100,000.
3)Cal-EMA received one-time federal funds for a similar -
uncodified - grant program in 2010. About $2 million is
available for grant proposals similar to those proposed by
this bill, which will be evaluated by Cal-EMA in the months
ahead.
AB 1387
Page 2
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author's intent is not to create new reentry
programs, but to provide support for existing YouthBuild USA
programs in California. According to the author, YouthBuild
(YB) has an impressive track record of helping at-risk youth
follow a career path out of poverty. With classroom training
and vocational training at the job site, youth graduating from
the program learn valuable and life-sustaining skills in the
construction trades. These youth in turn make lasting
contributions to their communities by building affordable
housing units, becoming role models for other youth and
children, and learning from private industry mentors how to
lead productive, successful lives.
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 now 273 YouthBuild programs in 45 states,
Washington, DC, and the Virgin Islands. 92,000 YouthBuild
students have built 19,000 units of affordable, increasingly
green, housing since 1994.
"The national YouthBuild network benefits from extraordinary
public-private partnerships. Local YouthBuild programs and
YouthBuild USA receive financial support from diverse public
and private, national and local sources. YouthBuild USA works
with federal funding agencies to assure the quality and
increase the impact of local YouthBuild programs. Primary
funding for local YouthBuild programs comes from the U.S.
Department of Labor under the federal YouthBuild program,
administered by the Employment and Training Administration
(ETA), which makes grants directly to local sponsors of
YouthBuild programs on a competitive basis.
"All YouthBuild students are poor and many have had experience
with foster care, juvenile justice, welfare, and homelessness.
Participants spend 6 to 24 months in the full-time program,
dividing their time between the construction site and the
AB 1387
Page 3
YouthBuild alternative school. Community- and faith-based
nonprofit organizations sponsor most programs, although some
are sponsored by public agencies. Each YouthBuild program
raises private and public funds to support itself."
3)Prior legislation .
a) AB 2200 (Solorio), 2010, which established a similar
reentry program, was held on this committee's Suspense
File.
b) 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