BILL ANALYSIS
SB 12 (Rainey)
Page
SENATE COMMITTEE ON Public Safety
Senator John Vasconcellos, Chair S
1999-2000 Regular Session B
1
2
SB 12 (Rainey)
As IntroducedDecember 7, 1998
Hearing date: March 23, 1999
PenalCode
SH:br
CORRECTIONAL PEACE OFFICERS - LENGTH OF BASIC TRAINING
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: AB 271 - Chapter 762, Statutes of 1998
Support: Peace Officer Research Association of California
Opposition:None known
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS BE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE TWENTY-FOUR WEEKS
OF TRAINING TO EACH CORRECTIONAL OFFICER CADET, TO THE EXTENT FUNDING IS
APPROPRIATED FOR THAT PURPOSE?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to provide that the Department
of Corrections provide twenty-four weeks of training to
each correctional officer cadet, to the extent funding is
SB 12 (Rainey)
Page
appropriated for that training.
Existing law creates the Commission on Correctional Peace
Officers Standards and Training (CPOST), within the Youth
and Adult Correctional Agency. CPOST shall develop, approve
and monitor standards for the selection and training of
state correctional peace officers. (Penal Code sections
13600 and 13601)
Existing law provides that each new cadet who attends an
academy after July 1, 2000, shall complete the course of
training, pursuant to standards approved by CPOST before he
or she may be assigned to a post or job as a peace officer.
(Penal Code section 13602)
Existing law provides that CPOST shall report to the
Governor and to the appropriate policy and fiscal
committees of the Legislature by September 1, 1999,
concerning the training standards determined for line
correctional peace officers and supervisors of the
California Department of Corrections and the California
Youth Authority. This report shall include, but not be
limited to, a description of the standards for the
curriculum of the respective academies and the length of
time required to satisfactorily train officers for their
duties. It is the intent that the report be included in
the basis for a new budget change proposal for the
administration to consider in the 2000-01 Budget Act to
enhance department training operations. (Penal Code
section 13602)
This bill requires that the Department of Corrections, to
the extent funding is appropriated, provide 24 weeks of
training to each correctional officer cadet, to be
completed prior to the cadet's assignment to a post or
position as a correctional peace officer.
COMMENTS
SB 12 (Rainey)
Page
1. Need for This Bill
The author has submitted the following:
SB 12 is introduced in the wake of the facts, which came
to light during the Legislative Hearings last year on the
alleged abuses at California State Prison Corcoran.
On December 1st, a federal court jury awarded $2.3
million to the family of Mark Adams, an inmate killed by
a guard trying to break up a prison yard fight. On that
same day an independent panel of two police chiefs and a
former F.B.I. agent appointed by the Legislature
concluded that deadly force was wrongly used in two dozen
of the 31 shootings at California State Prison - Corcoran
from 1989 to 1995. Since 1989, 39 inmates in California
prisons have been shot to death and more than 200
seriously wounded by guards firing bullets to break up
fights - by far more shootings than any other prison
system in the state.
During this same period, although California's prison
population more than doubled, the length of training for
the correctional officers who maintain control of these
over-crowded prisons remained a mere six weeks. SB 12
increases the current California Department of
Corrections Academy training period from 6 weeks to 24
weeks.
2. Current Basic Training Requirements for Correctional
Officers
The academy at Galt currently requires six weeks of
training for new correctional officers, two weeks for
first-line supervisors (sergeants), and two weeks for
second-line supervisors (lieutenants). The six-week
program is about 330 hours of training. The academy has
been graduating between 2,000 and 3,000 new officers
annually. The curriculum includes communications,
SB 12 (Rainey)
Page
supervision, ethics, use of force, security/custody,
medical/health and safety, records keeping, physical
training/stress management, etc.
3. Language Added by AB 271 (1998)
As introduced, AB 271 required ". . . each new trainee who
attends the academy after July 1, 1998, to complete 9 weeks
of training before he or she may be assigned to a post or
job as a peace officer. . . ." That specific length of
training was deleted in the Senate in the last set of
amendments added to AB 271 before it was sent to the
Governor.
As indicated in the Purpose Section, above, AB 271 as
enacted provides that:
CPOST shall report to the Governor and to the appropriate
policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature by
September 1, 1999, concerning the training standards
determined for line correctional peace officers and
supervisors of the California Department of Corrections
and the California Youth Authority. This report shall
include, but not be limited to, a description of the
standards for the curriculum of the respective academies
and the length of time required to satisfactorily train
officers for their duties. It is the intent of this
section that the report be included in the basis for a
new budget change proposal for the administration to
consider in the 2000-01 Budget Act to enhance department
training operations.
NOTWITHSTANDING THE GENERAL DISPARITY BETWEEN TRAINING
HOURS FOR CORRECTIONAL PEACE OFFICERS AND OTHER PEACE
OFFICERS, SHOULD THE LEGISLATURE WAIT UNTIL THE CPOST
REPORT REQUIRED IN AB 271 IS COMPLETED BEFORE EXTENDING
TRAINING HOURS BY STATUTE?
4. 1999-2000 Budget Act Increased Funding for Training
SB 12 (Rainey)
Page
There is $5 million in the California Department of
Corrections item in the proposed 1999-2000 State Budget Act
which, while currently not identified as such, is
reportedly going to be the subject of a CDC Budget Change
Proposal which would result in an April Department of
Finance letter. That money would be available for
implementation of the training recommendations due from the
Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and
Training. It may be unclear how much additional training
$5 million would provide.
5. Related Legislation
SB 577 (Peace), also to be heard today, is identical to
this bill except that SB 577 would provide for sixteen
weeks of training rather than twenty-four, depending on an
appropriation for that purpose.
6. Training for Other Peace Officers and Public Officers
Relating to Inmate Custody duties
The basic training course for regular peace officers, such
as local city police and sheriff's deputies, is 664 hours
of training (with minimal training in custodial duties;
those officers assigned to jail generally complete the 80
hour training course approved by Standards and Training for
Corrections). The Commission of Peace Officer Standards
and Training sets standards for the 664 hour basic peace
officer training course.
Penal Code section 830.1(c) provides for deputy sheriffs in
Los Angeles County who are "employed to perform duties
exclusively or initially relating to custodial assignments
with responsibilities for maintaining the operations of
county custodial facilities, including the custody, care,
supervision, security, movement, and transportation of
inmates" be allowed to complete only part of the basic
peace officer training and serve in the county jail and
then complete the remainder of the basic peace officer
training when assigned to regular duty outside of the
SB 12 (Rainey)
Page
county jail system. When that subdivision was added, it
was anticipated that the initial ". . . training mandated
would be the existing 64-hour course given all sheriff's
deputies in arrest and firearms plus, within 120 days of
employment, an 80-hour course required by the Department of
Corrections for custodial personnel." (Conference
Committee analysis of AB 574 - Chapter 950, Statutes of
1996) It was also anticipated that those Los Angeles
County Sheriff's deputies who took that "abbreviated"
training would be working with fully trained deputies in
the jail facilities.
In addition, Penal Code sections 831 and 831.5 create
public officers who are not peace officers but who may be
assigned to city and county jails, as specified. These
officers are required to complete the initial peace officer
40 hours - plus 24 hours for those authorized to use
firearms. And when there are at lease 20 custodial
officers on duty, one regular peace officer must be on duty
to supervise those custodial officers.
***************