Tuesday, February 18, 2020 | 1:21 PM
The Legislative Analyst's Office has just published the following
report:
The 2020-21 Budget: Criminal Justice Proposals
In this report, we review the Governor's proposed $19.7 billion
spending plan for state criminal justice programs. Below we summarize
some of the major findings and recommendations in the report.
Governors Probation Proposals. The Governor proposes $71
million (General Fund) and budget trailer legislation to (1) modify the
existing funding formula for incentivizing counties to reduce the rate at
which they send felons on community supervision to state prison (referred
to as the SB 678 funding formula), (2) require increased supervision of
certain misdemeanor probationers and provide limited-term funding for
this supervision, and (3) reduce the length of felony and misdemeanor
probation. We recommend the Legislature reject these proposals as they
could have unintended consequences, such as increasing the prison
population. However, in order to more effectively keep misdemeanor
probationers out of prison, we recommend expanding the SB 678 funding
formula to include misdemeanor probationers as an alternative.
Correctional Staff Training and Job Shadowing. The
Governors budget includes a total of $21.4 million (General Fund) to
implement various initiatives to improve correctional staff training,
such as a facility for hands-on officer training and a new job shadowing
program. While the various training initiatives generally appear
worthwhile, we recommend that the Legislature reject 42 of the requested
85 positions and associated $6.7 million because they have not been fully
justified.
Telehealth Services Building. The Governors budget
proposes $2 million (General Fund) for preliminary plans to construct a
telehealth services building at San Quentin State Prison to better
recruit Bay Area physicians and psychiatrists to provide telehealth
services. The estimated total cost of the project is $26 million. We
recommend that the Legislature reject the proposal and instead direct the
administration to provide a plan next year to utilize telecommuting. We
find that utilizing telecommuting would have several benefits over the
proposed capital outlay project including being much less costly and
allowing for wider recruitment.
Online Adjudication of Infractions. The Governors budget
proposes $11.5 million (General Fund)increasing to $56 million annually
beginning in 2023-24to expand statewide the use of an online
adjudication tool. We find that the impacts of the online adjudication
tool are still uncertain and could require more funding than currently
proposed. It is also premature to expand the tool statewide prior to the
completion of the statutorily required evaluation of the tool.
Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature reject the Governors
proposal.
Bureau of Forensic Services (BFS). The Governors budget
proposes to provide a total of $49.7 million in one-time and ongoing
General Fund to (1) backfill declines in criminal fine and fee revenue
supporting BFS; (2) fund the site acquisition and planning phase for a
new consolidated forensic science laboratory campus; and (3) fund
equipment replacement, facility maintenance, and workload related to
recent legislation. We recommend the Legislature approve these proposals.
In addition, we also recommend requiring local agencies to partially
support BFS beginning in 2021-22 given the substantial benefit BFS
provides local agencies. This would provide an ongoing solution to the
continued decline in BFS fine and fee revenue.
This report is available using the following link:
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4164?utm_source=laowww&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4164
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