BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2414
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Date of Hearing: May 2, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2414 (Solorio) - As Amended: April 23, 2012
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 4-1
Governmental Organization 12-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Emergency Management Agency
(Cal-EMA) to continue, until Jan. 1, 2018, the uncodified
one-time federally funded Youthful Offender Reentry (Cal-YOR)
competitive grant program targeting economically disadvantaged
youths upon discharge from a state or local correctional
facility, or from parole or probation. Specifically, this bill
also:
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.
Gang-affiliated youth shall have priority.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Significant state cost pressure to provide grants to youthful
offender reentry programs, from hundreds of thousands of
dollars to millions of dollars. Though the bill states that it
does not "mandate funding for this program", it also states
"The program shall provide grants to eligible nonprofit
organizations."
2)Administrative costs for a $2 million grant program would be
in the range of $100,000.
3)Cal-EMA received $3.7 million in one-time federal funds (Byrne
Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) and Residential Substance
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Abuse Treatment (RSAT) grants) for a Cal-YOR grant program in
2010, and is currently funding nine separate programs at
$411,379 per program.
Cal-EMA indicates these federal grants will decrease in the
new state fiscal year and that the new Board of State and
Community Corrections (BSCDC), the successor agency to Cal-EMA
effective July 1, 2013, will make the determinations regarding
grant allocation.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author's intent is to codify Cal-YOR, which
currently exists as a one-year federal grant program under
Cal-EMA. 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
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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
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)The current one-time Cal-YOR program under Cal-EMA funds nine
programs in San Diego (2), San Jose (2), Fresno (2), L.A. (2),
and Lancaster (1) from March 2011 to February 2013. Because
the program is a one-time, split-funded program, Cal-EMA is
not requiring additional data reporting and analysis beyond
that required by the federal grants. At this early juncture,
Cal-EMA is unable to quantify the success of the programs, and
in any case, future funding determinations will be made by
BSCC, not Cal-EMA.
4)Prior legislation .
a) AB 1387 (Solorio), 2011, similar to this bill, cleared
this committee's Suspense File but was held on the Senate
Suspense File before being amended to a non-related
subject.
b) AB 2200 (Solorio), 2010, which established a similar
reentry program, was held on this committee's Suspense
File.
c) 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."
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Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916)
319-2081