CA AB 157

Quick answers

Description

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish and implement a community treatment program, under which a woman sentenced to state prison who has one or more children under 6 years of age is eligible for release with the woman's children to a public or private facility in the community suitable to their needs. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to enter into contracts with public or private agencies to provide housing, sustenance, supervision, and services, subject to the approval of the Director of General Services. This bill would remove the requirement that the contracts be approved by the Director of General Services. The bill would authorize the department to enter into long-term contracts, not to exceed 10 years, for the transfer of prisoners to, or placement of prisoners in, facilities under contract pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require that the secretary advertise potential contracts under these provisions and would require that priority be given to certain community treatment programs, as specified. (2) Under existing law, the primary responsibilities of the State Public Defender are to represent those persons who are entitled to representation at public expense in specified proceedings, to provide assistance and training to specified attorneys, and to engage in related efforts for the purpose of improving the quality of indigent defense. This bill would exempt contracts entered into or amended by the State Public Defender to implement those duties from specified contract register requirements, specified small business procurement, disabled veteran business, and public contracting provisions, and from the review or approval of any division of the Department of General Services. (3) Existing law creates within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation the Prison Industry Authority and Prison Industry Board. Existing law continues in existence within the department the Prison Industry Authority and the Prison Industry Authority Board, among other entities. This bill would revise these provisions to rename the Prison Industry Authority as the California Correctional Training and Rehabilitation Authority, and to rename the Prison Industry Board as the California Correctional Training and Rehabilitation Board. The bill would make these provisions operative only if SB 857 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2026. (4) Existing law, the California Public Records Act, generally requires public records to be open for inspection by the public. Existing law provides numerous exceptions to this requirement. Under existing law, the personnel records of peace officers and custodial officers are confidential and not subject to public inspection. Existing law provides certain exemptions to this confidentiality, including the reports, investigations, and findings of certain incidents involving the use of force by a peace officer. Existing law makes records relating to an investigation conducted by a local detention facility into a death incident, as defined, available to public inspection, as specified. Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections, with the mission of, among other things, promoting legal and safe conditions for youth, inmates, and staff in local detention facilities. Existing law creates the position of Director of In-Custody Death Review within the board. This bill would authorize the director to have access to, and authority to, examine and reproduce records of any local detention facility, as specified. By increasing duties on local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law, the California Community Corrections Performance Incentives Act of 2009, authorizes each county to establish a Community Corrections Performance Incentives Fund, and provides annual payments to the counties for purposes relating to improving local probation supervision practices and capacities. Existing law continuously appropriates the State Community Corrections Performance Incentives Fund for these incentive payments. Existing law, as part of those annual payments, requires the Director of Finance, in consultation with certain entities, to annually calculate a statewide performance incentive payment and a county performance incentive payment for each eligible county. Existing law requires the director to calculate those payments based on, among other things, the cost to the state to incarcerate in a contract facility and supervise on parole an offender who fails local supervision and is sent to prison. This bill would instead make that calculation based on the per capita cost to the state to incarcerate in a state prison and supervise on parole an offender who fails local supervision and is sent to prison, calculated pursuant to specified formulas. Existing law also requires that calculation to be based on an estimate of the number of felons on probation, mandatory supervision, and postrelease community supervision each county successfully prevented from being incarcerated in state prison, determined based on the reduction in the county's probation and mandatory supervision failure rate as calculated annually for that year and the county's failure rate from the previous year. This bill would instead calculate that estimate based on the actual number of individuals under one of those forms of supervision admitted to state prison from each county in the previous calendar year subtracted from each county's baseline admission to prison rate for those forms of supervision, as specified, multiplied by the average daily population of those forms of supervision for each county in the previous calendar year. Existing law additionally requires the Director of Finance to calculate a statewide performance incentive payment for each county using a formula based on the county's return to prison rate and the county's highest year of funding that the county received from the California Community Incentive Grant Program from the 2011–12 fiscal year to the 2014–15 fiscal year, inclusive, as specified. This bill would repeal those provisions. The bill would additionally, beginning with the 2025–26 fiscal year, appropriate $103,668,010 to the State Community Corrections Performance Incentives Fund from the General Fund, to be distributed to counties, as specified. The bill would decrease a county's appropriation pursuant to these provisions by a factor of 10% for each percentage point the county return to prison rate exceeds its baseline return to prison rate, as specified. Existing law additionally requires the Director of Finance to calculate a statewide performance incentive payment based on the number of felons on probation, mandatory supervision, or postrelease community supervision that were successfully prevented from being incarcerated in the state prison, multiplied by 35% of the state's costs to incarcerate a prison felony offender in a contract facility, as specified. This bill would instead multiply that number by 25% of the average of the state's per capita cost to incarcerate a prison felony offender in a state prison and supervise an individual on parole. By changing the distribution of continuously appropriated funds and making a new appropriation, this bill would make an appropriation. (6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (7) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.