Corrections and Rehabilitation

Corrections and Rehabilitation

T

he California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is responsible
for the incarceration of convicted felons, the supervision of these felons after their
release on parole, and the provision of rehabilitative strategies designed to successfully
reintegrate offenders into communities. The CDCR is responsible for providing safe and
secure detention facilities and necessary support services to inmates, including food,
clothing, academic and vocational training. The Governor’s Budget proposes $9.1 billion
General Fund and 61,927 positions for state operations and local assistance programs
in 2011‑12.
The Governor’s Budget proposes reforms to institute policy‑based changes to prison
and parole operations that also provide necessary savings to address the ongoing
budget crisis. In addition, the Budget proposes to address longstanding underfunding in
several areas of CDCR’s budget and unrealistic savings estimates.

Fiscal Accountability
For the last several years, CDCR has struggled to meet its fiscal responsibilities as a result
of a structural budgetary shortfall in various programs. The Department has continuously
absorbed these unfunded costs by redirecting resources away from other programs
and priorities. These redirections have resulted in reductions in inmate education
and work programs, freezes placed on purchasing and training, increased equipment
and physical plant failures as necessary maintenance is deferred, and non‑custody
positions being held vacant to use salary savings to cover unfunded expenditures.

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More importantly, these redirections have likely prevented the CDCR from implementing
evidence‑based programs that could have a positive effect on recidivism rates.
The Governor’s Budget includes a new program structure within the Department that
allows for better tracking of funding by operational area. In addition, a reevaluation of
the Department’s methodology for initiating allotments was undertaken to measure
the appropriate level of funding needed for the institutions based upon current
operational standards.
As a result of these efforts, the Administration is including an ongoing augmentation
of $395.2 million within the CDCR’s budget to correct previous budget shortfalls and
more accurately reflect the operational costs within the adult institutions’ budgets.
This augmentation will allow the Department to fully fund the salary and wages of
authorized Correctional Officers, Sergeants, and Lieutenants, which is critical to ensuring
that the adult institutions have the resources to pay security staff. The augmentation
also provides funding to correct for a decline in the number of overtime hours available
to CDCR to use within its adult institutions. Due to salary and wage increases for
correctional officers over the last eight years, and no increase in departmental overtime
funding, the overtime base does not go as far as it originally did. The use of overtime is
critical to ensuring that all necessary staffing levels are maintained at CDCR’s institutions,
and the decline in funded overtime hours has been a primary cause for redirections of
funding from other activities.
This budget adjustment will also allow the adult institutions to operate a minimal level
of “swing space beds” — empty beds necessary to allow for the continuous population
movements that take place between CDCR institutions and between the counties and
local jails. Funding swing space throughout the adult institutions is essential, and prior
expectations that the Department would fill every funded bed on every day of the year
were unreasonable. It is not possible to hire, lay off, and/or transfer staff continuously
and rapidly enough to match population movements, and in the past the Department has
retained staff in place and paid for their salaries through redirections, since funds for this
purpose were not budgeted. This augmentation will provide funding for an adequate level
of staff to maintain a reasonable number of empty swing space beds.
Finally, this augmentation will address the medical guarding and transportation deficits
that have occurred consistently from the increased usage of outside medical care,
and fully fund the Office of Legal Affairs for the costs they incur related to settlements,
judgments and other court ordered costs associated with the Department’s various class

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action lawsuits. Appropriately funding these two areas will prevent CDCR from operating
unfunded correctional officer positions for medical guarding and transportation, and will
stop the redirection of funds to the Office of Legal Affairs.
The Administration is also including additional reporting requirements to increase the
fiscal accountability of CDCR’s adult institutions. The Department will be required to
report at intervals on how expenditures compare to allotments at every institution.
In each case where an institution is projected to overspend its allotments, CDCR will be
required to detail how it will reduce expenditures to avoid overspending. By giving the
Department adequate resources to carry out its mission, and simultaneously requiring
institution‑by‑institution accountability, the Administration intends to restore fiscal order
and discipline in the state correctional system and improve CDCR’s ability to provide the
programming from which it has redirected in the past.
A necessary component of ensuring sufficient funding for CDCR is the biennial
population funding request. The Governor’s Budget includes an increase of $98.6 million
General Fund in 2010‑11 for various costs directly related to changes in the budgeted
populations of adult inmates, juvenile wards, and adult and juvenile parolees, including
increased funding resulting from smaller population reduction projections compared to
previous savings estimates. In 2011‑12 there is an increase of $161.3 million General Fund
for the same purpose. This reflects an increase of 118 adult inmates in the current year,
compared to previous projections, and a decrease of 529 in the budget year, for a total
of 163,799 in 2010‑11 and 163,152 in 2011‑12. The projection also reflects decreases in
the estimated parolee population of 5,510 in 2010‑11 and 12,198 in 2011‑12, declining to a
total of 113,690 in the current year and 107,002 in 2011‑12. For juveniles, the population
funding request projects a decrease of 95 wards and an increase of 34 parolees in the
current year and a decrease of 130 wards and 56 juvenile parolees in the budget year,
resulting in totals of 1,304 wards and 1,554 parolees in 2010‑11 and 1,269 wards and
1,464 parolees in the budget year.

Elimination of Unrealistic Savings Estimates
As the state has struggled to resolve its ongoing budget problems, it has also struggled
with the appropriate ways to make meaningful reductions within its costly, sensitive,
and vital corrections function. This struggle has been exacerbated by the reality that
large‑scale reductions within CDCR’s budget must involve population decreases.
The difficulty of deciding on an appropriate course of action, while minimizing any effects
on public safety, have resulted in several unallocated reductions to CDCR’s budget in

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recent years, without corresponding legislation that would make it possible to achieve
those reductions. Similarly with the unfunded budget shortfalls discussed above,
the consequence has been redirections from various important areas to ensure the most
vital prison activities remain.
The Budget restores $200 million in 2010‑11 and 2011‑12 to reverse a population savings
adjustment included in the 2010 Budget Act. Population decreases that would have been
necessary to achieve this reduction have not materialized and are not expected.
The Budget also proposes a net increase of $643.4 million in 2010‑11 and $562.8 million
in 2011‑12 to restore a large portion of the savings included in the 2010 Budget Act
associated with the delivery of medical care to inmates. The Budget included a reduction
to the Medical Services Program of $820 million. However, the Receiver indicates that
the Program will only be able to achieve $94 million of the target, and has requested
a restoration of $726 million. While the Budget will recognize much of the unrealized
savings, the Administration believes the Medical Services Program can achieve a
greater level of savings than proposed by the Receiver. As such, the Budget also
proposes a decrease of $82.6 million in 2010‑11 and $163.2 million in 2011‑12 to the
Receiver’s Medical Services Program, which represents five‑percent and ten‑percent
reductions, respectively. Through administrative actions and statutory changes,
the Receiver has implemented a utilization management program to reduce the reliance
on costly outside medical care, centralized its pharmacy operations to provide a more
efficient and effective dispensing process, and reduced costs of outside hospital and
specialty care by capping reimbursement rates and contracting with a provider network.
These measures have led to some savings, but the Medical Services Program continues
to be costly at approximately $11,000 per inmate annually. The proposed reductions could
be achieved through other cost‑saving measures.
The restoration of funding related to unrealistic savings targets is another aspect of the
Administration’s determination to ensure CDCR has sufficient funding and is then held
accountable to restrain spending within that level.

Criminal Justice Reforms
Lower‑Level Adult Offenders
The large number of short‑term, lower‑level offenders and parole violators in prison has
resulted in overloaded reception centers, inefficient prison operations, and difficulties
with rehabilitation efforts. The number of short‑term, lower‑level offenders has increased

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dramatically since California changed to a determinate sentencing model. Lower‑level
offenders currently represent almost half of the prison population on any given day.
While parole violators encompass all types of offenders, they only return to prison for
a short two‑ to four‑month stay, and in some cases serve half of that time in a local jail.
The constant cycling of parole violators and short‑term offenders creates a situation in
which many inmates are housed in gyms and day rooms. The reception centers must
process 250,000 to 300,000 individual offenders in any given year. Due to limited
resources for county probation departments, many of these short‑term offenders
have previously failed to turn their lives around after being convicted of crimes at the
county level. With more resources, short‑term offenders can be better managed and can
become more successful through a combination of probation services and jail time.
The Governor’s Budget proposes that offenders convicted of non‑violent, non‑serious,
non‑sex offenses, and without any previous convictions for such offenses, would fall
under local jurisdiction, while the state would be responsible for inmates convicted of
the most serious offenses. The state incarcerates a substantial number of inmates who
have been convicted of drug or property crimes, as opposed to crimes against persons.
In 2008, 52.5 percent of new admissions were due to property or drug offenses,
33 percent were convicted of crimes against persons, and 14.5 percent were for
other crimes, such as weapons possession and driving under the influence. The state
also devotes a large share of its prison resources to short‑term incarcerations of
parole violators. In 2008, 55 percent of prison admissions were the result of parole
violations, while only 27 percent were new admissions, persons being incarcerated for
the first time for their offense. The remaining admissions were primarily inmates returned
from temporary release for reasons such as attending criminal trials or hospitalization.
Incarceration has become the primary method of dealing with parole violations in
California, driving up prison costs and inmate crowding. Further, parole revocation
sentences are served in reception centers at state prisons or local jail beds, where
there have not traditionally been any programs to address the reasons for the parole
failure or better prepare inmates for release into the community. The result has been a
costly system that has struggled to deliver necessary programs and health care and to
effectively prepare inmates for a return to society.
A decrease of $485.8 million is proposed in 2011‑12 to implement a change in mission
for the state’s prison system. The savings amount includes a one‑time reduction of
$150 million for rehabilitative programs. Funding for rehabilitative programs would be
restored in 2012‑13, after CDCR has reconfigured its program delivery model in accord
with its changed population mix. Upon full implementation, the proposal will save
approximately $1.4 billion.

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Given the crowded condition of many local jails and budget pressures at the city and
county level, the Budget also proposes to provide additional revenue to support local
governments and the provision of public safety services at the local level. The prison
mission changes discussed here are addressed in more detail in the Realignment chapter.
Other significant policy changes in the area of paroles, parole violators, and additional
revenues to enable local governments to successfully implement these activities are also
discussed in the Realignment chapter.

Juvenile Offenders
The vast majority of youthful offenders are now directed to county programs, enabling
direct access and closer proximity to their homes, families, social programs and services,
and other support systems. Offenders directed to the Division of Juvenile Justice
have been convicted of the most serious and violent crimes and are most in need
of specialized treatment services. These offenders represent less than one percent
of the 195,000 youth arrests made each year. Over the past decade, the number of
wards in state juvenile facilities has decreased from approximately 10,000 to fewer
than 1,300. In 2007, the state transferred the responsibility for lower‑level offenders
to the counties. The state is providing $117,000 per ward per year to county probation
to address the costs of managing the additional population. In January 2011, the state
will transfer the responsibility for supervising new juvenile parolees to counties.
The state is providing $15,000 per parolee per year to county probation for the additional
supervision responsibilities. The state is now left with a very small and expensive system
of providing services to the most violent juvenile wards at a cost exceeding $200,000 per
ward per year.
The Governor’s Budget proposes the elimination of the Division of Juvenile Justice by
June 30, 2014, and the transfer of jurisdiction for these offenders to local governments.
This proposal builds upon the efforts by local jurisdictions to retain offenders at the local
level, as well as the statutory changes from 2007 that prohibit counties from committing
non‑serious, non‑violent, and non‑sex offenders to the state. This will result in 2011‑12
savings of $78 million in 2011‑12, and upon full implementation the proposal will save
approximately $250 million.
Given the budget pressures at the local level, the Budget also proposes to provide
additional revenue to support local governments in making this mission change.
The juvenile mission changes and additional revenues discussed here are addressed in
more detail in the Realignment chapter.

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Incarceration of Undocumented Felons
Exacerbating the difficulty of funding California’s correctional system is the lack of full
federal reimbursement of the State’s costs for offenders who are not legal residents.
An estimated 11.2 percent of inmates in the state prison system in 2010‑11 will be
undocumented persons, and CDCR will spend approximately $938.6 million to incarcerate
some 18,300 offenders. However, the state is expected to receive only $88.1 million
in federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) funding for 2010‑11 and
2011‑12. At this level of funding, the state will be reimbursed for only 9.4 percent of the
costs associated with the incarceration and related debt service associated with the
undocumented felon population, with $850.5 million in costs in excess of the level of
federal reimbursements.

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