BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1387 (Solorio)
Hearing Date: 07/11/2011 Amended: 05/27/2011
Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 1387 would require the California Emergency
Management Agency (CalEMA), subject to an appropriation of
funds, to establish a Youthful Offender Reentry (Cal-YOR)
competitive grant program specifically targeting offenders who
will be between 16 and 23 years upon release from a local county
juvenile facility, the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation's (CDCR) Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF),
probation, or parole. This bill would require CalEMA to maintain
statistical information on the success of the program, including
the number of youth served and the recidivism rate for those
youth who participate in an eligible community program.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Cal-YOR grants Unknown; potentially in the
hundredsFed/General
of thousands to millions of
dollars,Local/Priv
subject to appropriation; cost pressure
on other funded reentry programs
Cal-YOR administration Unknown; potential costs in excess
ofGeneral
$150 annually to CalEMA
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
This bill would require the CalEMA, to the extent funds are
appropriated, to establish a Cal-YOR competitive grant program
specifically targeting youths between the ages of 16 and 23,
upon their probation, parole or release from a state or local
correctional facility. Enrollment and participation would be
subject to the approval of each program or local entity, with
priority for enrollment given to eligible youth who are
determined to be gang affiliated or who have an immediate family
member who has been identified as gang affiliated.
This bill requires priority be given to existing programs, and
AB 1387 (Solorio)
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defines "eligible community program" as a program that, at a
minimum, provides all of the following:
Integrated education and job training services and
activities, with equal time spent in classroom-based
instruction, counseling, and leadership development
instruction, and experiential job training;
Assistance in attaining postsecondary education and in
obtaining financial aid prior to graduation from the
program;
Counseling services designed to assist individuals in
positively participating in , society, including outreach,
assessment, orientation, peer counseling, life skills
training, drug and alcohol abuse education and prevention,
and referral to appropriate medical, mental health, and
other community services and resources;
Acquisition, rehabilitation, or construction of housing
and related facilities to be used for the purpose of
providing home ownership for disadvantaged persons,
residential housing for homeless and very low income
families, or transitional housing for individuals, as
specified; and,
Leadership development training.
This bill requires CalEMA to administer the program subject to
the appropriation of funds. This bill would result in unknown
costs for grants to youthful offender reentry programs,
potentially in the range of hundreds of thousands to millions of
dollars. A funding source is not specified in the bill and could
come from federal, state, local, and private funding.
Under the realignment of the Department of Juvenile Justice
(DJJ) parole, coordination efforts between county probation and
service providers would take place upon a youth's discharge from
a DJJ facility. CDCR staff has indicated the impact to DJJ would
be limited to establishing a staff contact at each facility for
this collaborative effort, which would be minor and absorbable
within existing resources.
CalEMA recently implemented a pilot version of the Cal-YOR
Program (uncodified) at the request of the California Council on
Criminal Justice (CCCJ), which authorized funding for the
Cal-YOR Program beginning March 1, 2011, for a 24-month grant
period supported with $2 million in federal Justice Assistance
Grant (JAG) funds and $1.7 million in Residential Substance
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Abuse Treatment (RSAT) funds. CalEMA began soliciting grant
proposals in November 2010 with the intent to fund up to nine
projects. As the program has only been in effect for three
months, there has been insufficient time to evaluate the
effectiveness of this program. As such, consideration of an
evaluation of the pilot program prior to codifying and/or
implementing the Cal-YOR grant program may be warranted.
CalEMA is projecting a 19 percent decrease in its 2011-12 JAG
allocation. As JAG monies fund a variety of programs in addition
to the Cal-YOR Program, continuing funding for the Cal-YOR
Program at the current level for this specific program could
result in a decrease in the amount available for other
JAG-funded programs, which include multi-jurisdictional drug
task forces, drug courts, public safety procurement activities,
and a tattoo removal pilot program. Staff notes that SB 92
(Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), the public safety trailer
bill recently signed by the Governor, eliminated the CCCJ and
redirects specified public safety programs administered by
CalEMA, including those supported by JAG funds, to a newly
established Board of State and Community Corrections. As a
result, it is unknown if CalEMA will continue to be granted
authority to administer JAG funding as previously authorized by
the CCCJ.
Costs for CalEMA to administer the statewide grant program and
maintain statistical information on the program as required
under the provisions of this bill would likely be in excess of
$150,000 annually.
Prior Legislation. AB 2200 (Solorio) 2010 established a similar
reentry program and was held on the Suspense File of the
Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
AB 1049 (Solorio) 2007, similar to AB 2200 noted above, was
vetoed by the Governor with the following message:
I am returning Assembly Bill 1049 without my signature. While I
appreciate the author's intent, this bill is unnecessary, as the
recently established Juvenile Justice Community Reentry
Challenge Grant Program will serve many of the same functions as
proposed by this bill, and is currently being implemented. It is
necessary to allow this program to proceed and gauge its
effectiveness, and then determine whether it is successful
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enough to expand, before creating a new separate but similar
program. In addition, 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. For these reasons, I am returning this
bill without my signature.