BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1391 (Hancock) - Inmate Education Programs and Apportionments
Amended: April 10, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 8-0, Pub.
Safety 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 12, 2014 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1391 waives the open course requirement for
California community college (CCC) courses offered in state
correctional facilities and allows attendance hours generated by
credit courses to be funded at the credit rate. This bill also
requires the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) in collaboration with the Chancellor of
the CCC to establish the Innovative Career Technical Education
Grant (ICTEG) program, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Conversion to "for credit" rate: Potentially substantial
new General Fund costs, likely in the high hundreds of
thousands of dollars, which will be determined by the number
of for-credit courses that would otherwise be funded at the
noncredit rate or which would not be offered at all without
the funding augmentation.
Inclusion of state correctional facilities: Potentially
significant costs, which will be determined by the extent to
which CCC courses expand in state prisons because of the
waiver. The expansion is likely to be mitigated by new
course offerings through the ICTEG Program.
ICTEG Program: Approximately $20 million (General Fund)
statewide (or about $500,000 - $600,000 per correctional
institution) to establish the program. Ongoing annual costs
of $5 million - $6.5 million (General Fund) statewide (or
about $150,000 - $190,000 per correctional institution)
depending on the award amounts determined by CDCR and the
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CCC Chancellor and the availability of funding for this
program. The Chancellor's office would incur approximately
$110,000 - $170,000 in personnel and travel expenses
ongoing.
Background: Existing law authorizes a community college district
(CCD) to claim state apportionment for classes it provides to
inmates of any city, county, or city and county jail, road camp,
farm for adults, or federal correctional facility (but not for
inmates in state correctional facilities). The attendance hours
generated by these classes, whether the classes are for credit
or noncredit, are counted as noncredit attendance hours for
apportionment purposes. (Education Code � 84810.5)
Classes provided to inmates of state correctional facilities are
not currently authorized for state apportionment funding. In
addition, no funds provided for inmate education programs can be
considered as part of the base revenues for CCDs in computing
apportionments. (EC � 84810.5)
Courses offered to state correctional inmates must be "distance
education" courses which are open to the public, as well. This
requirement is waived for CCC courses offered in local and
federal correctional facilities, but those courses are funded at
a "noncredit rate", even if the courses are actually for credit.
Proposed Law: This bill waives open course provisions for any
CCD that provides classes for inmates in state correctional
facilities, and allows CCD governing boards to claim FTES for
inmate education programs that include those in state
correctional facilities.
This bill authorizes attendance hours generated in CCC courses
offered in state, city, county or federal correctional
facilities to be funded at either: (a) the marginal credit rate
for credit courses, or (b) the noncredit rate for noncredit
courses; it also deletes the prohibition on the inclusion of
funds received for inmate education programs in the base revenue
computations for CCD apportionments.
This bill requires the CDCR, in collaboration with the
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) to
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establish and administer the ICTEG Program, as specified. As
part of the program, this bill requires an unspecified amount of
funding, beginning in 2014-15 and annually thereafter, be
transferred from the CDCR to the CCCCO for the purposes of the
program. In addition, the bill requires CDCR to provide for up
to an unspecified number of grants, with an unspecified number
of these grants being awarded for programs offered at a women's
correctional facility. The CDCR, in consultation with the CCCCO,
is responsible for determining the amount of grant awards, as
specified.
Related Legislation: AB 1271 (Bonta) is virtually identical to
the funding/apportionment aspects of this measure. That bill is
awaiting action in the Senate Education Committee.
AB 216 (Swanson) 2011 was virtually identical to the
funding/apportionment aspects of this measure. That bill was
held under submission in this Committee.
AB 1702 (Swanson) 2010 was also virtually identical to the
funding/apportionment aspects of this measure. That bill was
held under submission in this Committee.
SB 574 (Hancock) 2009 was substantially similar to the
funding/apportionment aspects of this bill. That bill was held
under submission in this Committee.
SB 413 (Scott) 2008 was nearly identical to SB 574. That bill
was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
Staff Comments: Existing law does not permit CCCs to receive
state funding for courses that are not open to the public,
except for courses offered at city, county and federal
correctional facilities (but not at state correctional
facilities). Courses offered to state correctional inmates must
be "distance education" courses open to the public, as well.
Under existing law, CCC courses offered in local and federal
correctional facilities that are not open to the public are
funded at the "noncredit rate" (which is less than the "for
credit rate"), even if the courses are actually for credit.
This bill would waive the "open course" provisions for CCC
courses offered in state correctional facilities, thus
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conforming to current allowances for CCC courses in local or
federal correctional facilities, for which the college receives
funding even though the courses are not open to the general
public. The CCCs would be able to offer courses in state
correctional facilities, and receive apportionments for those
courses. Additionally, this bill would allow attendance hours
generated by credit courses, at all correctional facilities to
be funded at the corresponding rates for those types of courses
rather than at the lower, noncredit rate at which the existing
exception courses are funded.
This bill would increase state costs by allowing community
colleges to claim funding for courses taught at state
correctional facilities and by funding credit courses provided
at these facilities at the full credit rate (noncredit courses
would still be funded at the lower noncredit rate). Currently,
for-credit courses are funded at the rate of $4,636 per
full-time equivalent student (FTES), career development and
college preparation noncredit courses are funded at $3,283 per
FTES, and noncredit courses at $2,788 per FTES.
According to a survey conducted by the CCCCO, CCC programs
operated for-credit courses for 1,769 FTES in the 2006-07 fiscal
year (which remains the most recent survey data available). The
majority of these FTES would receive full credit funding,
because the courses were distance education courses also open to
the public. Under this bill, the remaining FTES would also
receive full credit apportionments, which are higher by $1,848
per FTES. If the course offerings from 2007 held true, 181
course rates would be converted, at a cost of $334,000.
Inmate education and training programs are beginning to be
restored, after years of CDCR departmental budget reductions
that resulted in the elimination of those programs. The 2011-12
Budget allocated only $99.5 million for inmate education
programs, which was less than half of the $206 million spent in
2008-09. In late 2011, Public Safety Realignment, aimed at
reducing prison overcrowding by prospectively housing more
felons in county jails, was enacted. Inmates incarcerated for
the commission of specified felonies considered non-serious,
non-violent, and non-sex offenses were largely realigned to
serve those sentences in county jails instead of state prisons.
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In the current year, CDCR has allocated approximately $189
million to inmate education and training programs for inmates
who have remained incarcerated in state correctional facilities;
the Governor's 2014-15 Budget proposes a modest reduction to
$173 million.
Waiving the open course requirements (which would allow CCDs to
offer courses in state correctional facilities) combined with
increased fiscal incentive for the CCDs to offer courses in
state prisons would likely lead to an expansion of course
offerings and costs. These additional costs would depend on the
number of FTES that would take classes at a state correctional
facility. For every 100 for-credit FTES authorized under this
provision, state costs would increase by $464,000. While
community colleges are limited to enrollment caps, staff notes
that expanding access and funding rates creates pressure to
increase funds and incentivizes community colleges to augment
prison education programs statewide.
CDCR's Division of Rehabilitative Programs would be responsible
for establishing and administering the ICTEGP. Staff would have
to work with the CCCCO to determine the level of available grant
funding and how to allocate it among the 35 state correctional
facilities. The CDCR estimates that costs to establish the ICTEG
Program (and fund a year of actual programming) at each
institution for 27 inmates per prison would be approximately $20
million, including training, equipment, supplies, coordination,
and CCC tuition paid by the CDCR. Costs could be less, depending
on the level of staffing required to coordinate the program with
CCDs and the CCCCO.
Annual ongoing costs would drop substantially, to $5 million -
$6.5 million per year to continue to provide the courses. This
assumes that coordination efforts do not require a dedicated
staff person at each prison, but rather could be done by one
position for every 5 state prisons participating. The CCCCO
estimates that it would incur approximately $110,000 - $170,000
in ongoing personnel and travel expenses for its role in
establishing, evaluating, and participating in the
administration of the program.
Numerous studied have indicated that providing high quality job
training and education programs, particularly career technical
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education, to inmates increases their chances of successfully
transitioning to society after release. To the extent that
providing inmates with career technical programming prepares
them to successfully obtain and keep jobs upon release, there
will likely be some amount of reduced recidivism and related
future state cost avoidance.