CDCR Releases Plan to Cut Billions in Prison Spending and Meet Federal Court Mandates

Federal health-care oversight should end by 2013

SACRAMENTO – In the wake of a declining prison population resulting from Realignment, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) today released a plan to cut billions in spending, comply with multiple federal court orders for inmate medical, mental health and dental care, and significantly improve the operation of California’s prison system. The plan is titled “The Future of California Corrections: A Blueprint to Save Billions of Dollars, End Federal Oversight, and Improve the Prison System.”

“My goal is to end federal court oversight of medical, mental health and dental care by next year,” said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate. “This plan builds on the improvements made possible by Realignment. It will go a long way towards making our correctional system more efficient and secure and, at the same time, lower our high recidivism rates.”

CDCR’s plan will:

·         Reduce CDCR’s annual budget by more than $1.5 billion upon full implementation, including $160 million dollars in savings from closing the California Rehabilitation Center;

·         Eliminate $4.1 billion in construction projects that are no longer needed because of population reductions;

·         Eliminate $2.2 billion annually that would have been spent had Realignment not been implemented;

·         Return all out-of-state inmates to California by 2016 to bring back jobs and manage offenders closer to home while saving millions in taxpayer dollars;

·         Satisfy the U.S. Supreme Court’s order to lower the state’s prison population;

·         Satisfy the federal courts that CDCR has achieved and maintained constitutional levels of medical, mental health and dental care to avoid costly oversight;

·         Incorporate a standardized staffing formula to better manage staff levels and cost;

·         Improve the classification system to provide proper inmate housing placement and reduce the reliance on costly high-security facilities.

This plan ends a long-term uptick in corrections costs. CDCR accounted for just three percent of General Fund spending 30 years ago, which increased to 11 percent in FY 2008-09. CDCR’s plan will lower it to 7.5 percent in FY 2015-16. When realignment is fully implemented, CDCR expenditures will drop by 18 percent overall.

Source: CDCR Today