California Corrections Spending Still High Despite Reforms

In recent years, California has made significant progress in reducing the number of people involved with the state correctional system. These declines resulted from criminal justice reforms adopted by state policymakers and the voters following a 2009 federal court order requiring California to reduce overcrowding in state prisons.

This Issue Brief examines changes in corrections spending from the 2007-08 fiscal year — when the numbers of incarcerated adults and parolees peaked — to 2015-16, which began this past July. While total corrections spending as a share of the state budget is down slightly since 2007-08, spending for adults under state jurisdiction — which comprises more than 80 percent of total corrections expenditures and includes security and operations as well as health care — remains stubbornly high.

Significantly — and permanently — reducing corrections spending will require the state to take additional steps. These could include further reforming California’s sentencing laws, particularly with an eye toward cutting the length of prison sentences. This would reduce the number of incarcerated adults, which would allow the state to close one or more prisons and could help to lower prison health care spending.

Read the Issue Brief. 

Via the California Budget & Policy Center, November 2015 report

http://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/corrections-spending-through-the-state-budget-since-2007-08-still-high-despite-recent-reforms/ 

Immigration Detention Center Expands in Southern California

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Immigration authorities will expand a Southern California detention facility to get more bed space for women with criminal records, immigrants with medical needs, recently arrived asylum seekers and other detainees.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is getting an additional 640 beds at a privately contracted detention facility some 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles starting in July, raising the total number of beds to 1,940.

The move helps consolidate detention space because beds are expensive and hard to find in cities such as San Francisco, said David Marin, ICE’s deputy field office director for enforcement and removal in Los Angeles. Most detainees at the center have criminal records, officials said.

The expansion of the facility in Adelanto run by GEO Group comes as the number of detained immigrants has dropped nationwide. From October 2014 to March 2015, the average number of immigrants in detention each day totaled 26,734, down 21 percent from the previous fiscal year’s daily average.

Immigrant advocates said the expansion clashes with Obama administration policies aimed at detaining fewer immigrants. They also questioned the quality of medical care at the center, which opened in 2011.

GEO Group officials declined to comment.

ICE, which announced a proposal earlier this week to consider housing transgender immigration detainees by the gender they identify with, plans to move about two dozen transgender detainees from a city-owned facility in Santa Ana to the new women’s section in Adelanto, said Virginia Kice, an agency spokeswoman.

Immigration officials also contract for space at several other area facilities that are run by law enforcement agencies. In Orange County, two jails used for immigration detainees have seen their numbers decline, said Lt. Jeff Hallock, a sheriff’s department spokesman. Those beds were about 70 percent occupied as of last week, he said.

The average daily rate that ICE must pay to house a detainee in Adelanto is $111, compared with $118 at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department facilities and $142 at centers in the San Diego area, according to ICE. The national average is $122 a day.

By: Amy Taxin
Via: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/2/immigration-detention-center-expands-in-southern-c/

Please Endorse One of Our Own!

The Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) plays a monumental role in all aspects of the criminal justice system. It works in partnership with local corrections systems and assists efforts to achieve continued improvement in reducing recidivism through evidence- based decision making in the State of California. 

This July 1st, committee positions will be up for appointment and we're asking for you to endorse Kim Carter's appointment to the BSCC!

Please sign and send the attached sample letter on your organization's letterhead ASAP to each of the following representatives:

Honorable Toni Atkins

Speaker of the Assembly 

State Capitol 

P.O. Box 942849 

Sacramento, CA 94249-0078 

Via Fax: (916) 319-2178

Honorable Chris Holden

Majority Floor Leader of the Assembly 

State Capitol 

P.O. Box 942849 

Sacramento, CA 94249-0041 

Via Fax: (916) 319-2141

Honorable Reggie Jones-Sawyer

Legislative Black Caucus Chair of the Assembly

State Capitol 

P.O. Box 942849 

Sacramento, CA 94249-0059 

Via Fax: (916) 319-2159

For more information about Kim Carter and Time for Change Foundation please visit 

www.timeforchangefoundation.org.