BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 892
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 892 (Hancock) - As Amended: May 27, 2014
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote:5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill creates detailed procedures regarding placement and
treatment of inmates housed in a California Department of
Corrections' Security Housing Unit (SHU). Specifically, this
bill:
1)Creates a new associate director position to oversee the
security threat group (gang) validation and SHU operations and
conditions.
2)Specifies due process procedures for determining if an inmate
is a member or an associate of a gang, and subject to
placement in a SHU, including:
a) Timely written notice that gang validation is being
considered, and why.
b) A dedicated and trained classification committee.
c) An in-person hearing, with an interpreter, if necessary,
and an advocate.
3)Requires the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to review
every gang validation based on confidential information prior
to an offender being placed in a SHU, as specified. If the OIG
concludes the determination is not supported by the evidence,
or the inmate was not provided due process, the gang
validation is deleted and the inmate may not be placed in a
SHU.
4)Requires all SHU inmates to be placed in the existing Step
Down Program, as specified.
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5)Requires the OIG to review the files of each inmate subject to
an indeterminate SHU term who is denied progression within the
program.
6)Requires all SHU inmates to have an individualized plan, and
requires programming to promote successful assimilation into
the general prison population. Requires assessment of inmates
every 90 days, provides inmates the opportunity to advance to
the next step of the program after 180 days, and requires the
OIG to review inmate files for CDCR compliance.
7)Requires CDCR to prepare reentry plans for every offender who
will parole directly out of the SHU or Psychiatric Services
Unit (PSU) into the community. Requires the OIG to review
files for compliance.
8)Allows an inmate serving a determinate SHU term to earn
sentence credits.
9)Requires an inmate in a SHU or PSU to have access to
educational, weekly face-to-face interaction with staff,
exercise in the presence of other inmates (though inmates may
be separated by barriers), access to radio or TV, and the
opportunity to earn privileges and sentence credits. Requires
the OIG to perform biennial audits to assess CDCR compliance.
10)Requires mental health screening for SHU inmates, including
specified monitoring, with subsequent mental health
assessments, as specified. Inmates suffering from a serious
mental illness shall be removed from the SHU. Requires CDCR to
provide training regarding psychiatric crises. Requires the
OIG to perform biennial audits to assess CDCR compliance.
11)Requires CDCR to employ two ombudspersons as resource
specialists at the five prisons with a SHU or PSU.
12)Requires CDCR to collect specified data regarding inmates
subject to a term in a SHU, and requires the OIG, to use this
data to prepare a biennial report, as specified.
13)Requires the OIG to employ two secured housing specialists
for the five prisons with a SHU or a PSU to monitor
programming and conditions.
FISCAL EFFECT
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1)Significant ongoing GF costs, in the $20 million range, for
staffing, prescriptive procedures, and audits and reports.
Major cost component estimates:
a) $400,000 for a new associate director and related
staffing contingent.
b) $100,000 for the OIG to review every gang validation
based on confidential information and to determine whether
the validation stands.
c) $1 million to develop individualized plans for all SHU
inmates, including progress tracking and assessments every
90 days.
d) $50,000 for the OIG to review all SHU inmate files for
inmates who do not progress in the program, and to conduct
annual audits of CDCR compliance.
e) $2 million for additional staffing for expanded
recreational opportunities.
f) $50,000 for the OIG to conduct biennial inmate
programming compliance audits.
g) $15 million for prescribed mental health monitoring,
including daily logs, weekly rounds, and comprehensive
evaluations every 90 days.
h) $50,000 for the OIG to conduct biennial mental health
compliance audits.
i) $1 million for 10 SHU ombudspersons.
j) $50,000 for the OIG to report biennially regarding
prescribed SHU inmate metrics.
aa) $1 million for 10 SHU monitors under the OIG.
2)One-time capital outlay costs in the $1 million range for
exercise yards and security barriers.
3)Unknown annual GF savings, potentially in the low tens of
millions of dollars over the course of a decade, by making SHU
inmates eligible for sentence credits.
COMMENTS
Rationale. The author contends the use of SHUs to house and
punish inmates indefinitely for real or alleged gang affiliation
- rather than for actual crimes or rule violations - is
inappropriate. According to the author, "Psychological research
has found that a lack of social interaction can lead SHU inmates
suffer from a variety of psychological and psychiatric
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illnesses. These can include chronic insomnia, panic attacks,
and symptoms of psychosis (including hallucinations).
"SB 892 would create an infrastructure to ensure humane
conditions for SHU inmates, provide oversight and accountability
in the use of the SHU, provide for evidence-based programming to
inmates, and provide greater due process."
1)Current Law and Regulations .
a) Provides an inmate placed in a SHU, PSU, Behavioral
Management Unit, or an Administrative Segregation Unit for
specified violent misconduct, or upon validation as a
prison gang member or associate, is ineligible to earn
sentence credits for time spent in these units. (Penal Code
2933.6(a))
b) Requires an inmate found guilty of specified offenses to
serve a determinate term in the SHU, ranging from two
months to 60 months. (Cal. Code of Regs)
c) Allows CDCR to place an inmate in the SHU for an
indeterminate term if the inmate is validated as a gang
member or associate. (Cal. Code of Regs)
2)SHU Background . As detailed in the Assembly Public Safety
analysis, CDCR has SHUs in five institutions - Pelican Bay
State Prison, California State Prison in Corcoran, California
Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, California State Prison
in Sacramento, and California Institution for Women. As of
April 2014, CDCR reports these SHUs had a population of about
2,200 validated prison gang members and associates.
Inmates are assigned to the SHU in two ways. First, inmates
may be assigned to the SHU for a determinate time period as
punishment for actions within a prison. If an inmate is found
guilty of violating specified rules, regulations, or laws, for
example, possessing a weapon, assault, or any of a series of
violent offenses, the inmate may be placed in the SHU for a
determinate period of time. Second, if an inmate is validated
as a member of a prison gang, the inmate may be placed in the
SHU for an indeterminate period.
As of February 2014, according to CDCR, 289 inmates have spent
more than 10 years in a SHU; 46 inmates have spent more than
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20 years in a SHU; and 39 inmates have spent more than 25
years in a SHU.
Historically, an inmate placed in the SHU as a validated gang
member or associate would serve the remainder of his or her
sentence in the SHU, unless the institutional gang
investigator determined the inmate had no gang activity for
six years, or the inmate agreed to debrief. Debriefing
requires the inmate to provide gang investigators with
detailed information on alleged gang members and associates.
Most SHU inmates choose not to debrief, however, for fear of
reprisal.
In October 2012, CDCR implemented a 24-month pilot program
entitled "Security Threat Group Identification, Prevention,
and Management Instructional Memorandum." Under the Security
Threat Group (STG) Plan, gang members and affiliates are
placed in a step-down program that provides for graduated
housing, privileges, and personal interaction with the goal of
integrating participants back into the general population of
the prisons. While there are recommended time frames for each
step, there is no limit on how long an inmate may remain in
each step. Debriefing remains available for inmates who do
not wish complete the step-down program.
In implementing the STG Plan, CDCR conducted reviews of
inmates currently in the SHU to determine whether their
continued placement in the SHU was appropriate. According to
CDCR, as of April 2014, CDCR had completed 551 reviews, and
355 of those inmates were released to the general population.
3)Inmate Hunger Strikes . In early July 2011 about 6,500 inmates
refused meals in protest over SHU status and condition. The
number of inmates gradually decreased until the hunger strike
ended on July 20, 2011. Following the strike, CDCR officials
agreed to a series of SHU changes such as wall calendars for
purchase, exercise equipment in SHU yards, annual photographs
for disciplinary free inmates, proctors for college
examinations, use of a CDCR ombudsman for monitoring and
auditing of food services, authorization of hobby items. CDCR
also agreed to conduct comprehensive reviews of SHU policies,
increased privileges based on disciplinary-free behavior, a
step-down process for SHU inmates, and a system that better
defines and weighs necessary points in the gang validation
process.
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Last July 8, about 30,000 inmates joined a second hunger
strike led by Pelican Bay State Prison SHU inmates. The
inmates wanted more substantive changes to CDCR's policy for
validating inmates as gang leaders or accomplices. This strike
ended on September 5, 2013, with the promise of legislative
hearings on the use and conditions of solitary confinement in
California's prisons. Informational hearings were held in
October 2013 and February 2014.
4)LA Times Op-Ed by CDCR Secretary Jeffrey Beard regarding
gang/SHU policy .
"So what is this really about? Some of the men who
participated in the last hunger strike have since dropped out
of the gangs for religious or personal reasons, and they said
it best in recently filed court declarations. "Honestly, we
did not care about human rights," one inmate said about the
2011 hunger strike. "The objective was to get into the general
population, or mainline, and start running our street
regiments again." Another described the hunger strike this
way: "We knew we could tap big time support through this
tactic, but we weren't trying to improve the conditions in the
SHU; we were trying to get out of the SHU to further our gang
agenda on the mainline."
"It's no different this time. The inmates calling the shots
are leaders in four of the most violent and influential prison
gangs in California: the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mexican Mafia,
Nuestra Familia and the Black Guerrilla Family. We're talking
about convicted murderers who are putting lives at risk to
advance their own agenda of violence." (LA Times, Aug. 6,
2013.
5)Support includes a list of inmate advocacy organizations that
generally cite fairness and the lack of due process for SHU
terms.
According to the CA Public Defenders Association, "In 2013,
California prisoners throughout the state went on a prolonged
hunger strike to demand changes in the desperate conditions of
inmates locked in the SHU, and in particular prison gang
members without hope of ever being released. For such status
offenders, the only path to release is 'debriefing.'
'Debriefing' is the California Department of Corrections and
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Rehabilitation's term for where a prison gang member or
associate renounces their gang affiliation by naming all of
the other gang members and their practices. Since
California's state prisons are already rife with inmate on
inmate violence 'debriefing' has the potential to make the
former gang member a target. Such a policy also puts members
of the community at risk since 'debriefed' former gang
members' families become targets as well."
6)Fiscal Policy Concerns/Amendments .
The author's office continues to work with the committee to
reduce costs and address fiscal policy concerns, which
include, a new associate director and staffing contingent,
giving the OIG override over gang validations, mandating the
Step Down Program for non-gang members, 90-day individualized
plan assessments, daily mental health logs and 90-day
assessments, and 20 new positions for ombudpersons and
monitors.
7)Related Legislation , AB 1652 (Ammiano), which provides an
inmate may only be placed in a SHU for violation of specified
serious offenses, and deletes the provision of law making a
person who is placed in a SHU upon validation as a gang member
or associate ineligible to earn sentence credits, was amended
by this committee to deal only with credits. AB 1652 failed
passage on the Assembly floor.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081