Calls for Audit of Cal. Prison Credits

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been handing out sentence reduction credits like Halloween candy. However, Julie Watts of Sacramento’s CBS-13 reports:

For more than a year, CBS Sacramento has been working to answer the question: “Are prison reform laws in California leading to more rehabilitation and fewer felons reoffending after release?” Unfortunately, we still don’t know because, as we’ve learned, the state isn’t analyzing, or won’t release, crucial data.

In an interview with CBS-13, the chairman of the California Assembly Public Safety Committee said he would submit a state audit request to get the data that CDCR won’t even give the Legislature, and he will include the station’s unanswered questions.

The Placer County District Attorney is joining the call for an audit, the Sierra Sun reports:

“My office has done everything from drafting legislation to filing lawsuits and writing letters, to educating our communities and working with local media partners to try and hold CDCR accountable in releasing inmates early. It is critical to public safety and, frankly, to the public trust, that CDCR be transparent in how it determines inmates that are suitable for early release,” said Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire. “Not only do we believe the voters were not aware of the unilateral power they gave to CDCR through Prop 57 to award credits, but to do so behind a veil of secrecy creates distrust and skepticism. Our community, particularly victims and survivors of crime and their families, deserve better.”

In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 57 with the promise of rehabilitation programs to better help inmates re-integrate into society upon release. Releases under Proposition 57 included a hearing process that allowed for written participation by prosecutors and victims and survivors of crime.

But Prop. 57 also created a shadow program of “good conduct credits” that lacks oversight, opportunity for feedback, or a mechanism to show successes or failures of the program to help guide future policy decisions. Prop. 57 also quietly provided CDCR with the unilateral power to make major policy decisions without public or state officials’ feedback or review.

More precisely, CDCR claims to have that unilateral power under Proposition 57. Whether it really does is presently in litigation. The District Attorneys were held not to have standing to make the challenge in the suit DA Gire refers to in the quote, but CJLF continues the fight.

Placer County is east and north of Sacramento, including the “gold country” foothills,  the mountains, and the northern part of Lake Tahoe.