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AB-2178 Prisons: bed thresholds.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 08/29/2024 09:00 PM
AB2178:v96#DOCUMENT

Enrolled  August 29, 2024
Passed  IN  Senate  August 26, 2024
Passed  IN  Assembly  August 27, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  August 15, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 21, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2178

Introduced by Assembly Member Ting

February 07, 2024

An act to add Section 2069 to the Penal Code, relating to prisons.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2178, Ting. Prisons: bed thresholds.
Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce the population of private in-state male contract correctional facilities. Existing law requires the department, to the extent that the adult offender population continues to decline, to reduce the capacity of state-owned and state-operated prisons or in-state leased or contract correctional facilities. In reducing prison capacity, existing law requires the department to take into consideration, among other things, the cost to operate at the facility, the impact on its workforce, and public safety and rehabilitation.
This bill would require the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to ensure that state prisons maintain average daily empty bed thresholds, as specified. The bill would require the secretary, no later than April 1 of every year, to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee specified information, including, among other things, whether the department exceeded the specified thresholds for the current fiscal year.
The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 2069 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

2069.
 (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) On February 10, 2014, a federal three-judge court ordered the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce the population of state prisons to 137.5 percent of their design capacity by February 28, 2016. The department met this requirement and has since remained in compliance. To maintain compliance, the department typically maintained about 2,500 empty beds, meaning it managed the population so that it housed about 2,500 people, on an average daily population basis, less than the court-ordered limit.
(2) Because prison capacity reductions have not kept pace with the ongoing decline in the prison population, the number of empty beds has grown significantly in recent years. As of January 31, 2024, state prisons have 13,211 empty beds. This number is projected to grow to about 19,000 empty beds, or nearly one-fifth of the statewide prison capacity, by June 30, 2028, after accounting for the planned closure of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in 2025.
(3) Maintaining more than 2,500 empty prison beds is not a cost-effective use of taxpayer money.
(b) The secretary shall ensure that state prisons do not maintain more empty beds in operation, on an average daily population basis, than is specified in subdivision (c). Notwithstanding this requirement, the secretary may allow the number of empty beds to exceed the benchmarks specified in subdivision (c) if necessary to address exigent circumstances. No later than April 1 of every year, the secretary shall report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee all of the following information:
(1) Whether the department exceeded the benchmarks specified in subdivision (c) for the current fiscal year.
(2) Whether or not the secretary estimates the department will exceed the benchmarks specified in subdivision (c) for the upcoming fiscal year.
(3) If the department exceeds the benchmarks specified in subdivision (c) for the current fiscal year, a written explanation of the circumstances for exceeding the benchmarks specified in subdivision (c) and the reasons for maintaining additional empty beds.
(c) For the purposes of this section, the average daily empty bed thresholds are as follows for each fiscal year:
(1) 11,300 for 2025–26.
(2) 9,900 for 2026–27.
(3) 8,400 for 2027–28.
(4) 5,900 for 2028–29.
(5) 2,500 for 2029–30 and thereafter.