Senate Rules Committee
Derzeit keine Kapitel verfügbar
Legende
Markierungen im Transkript
- Text Aktuell abgespielter Satz
- Text Suchergebnis
- Text Redebeitrag, auf den der geöffnete Link verweist
Klicken Sie auf einen Satz, um das Video ab dieser Stelle abzuspielen. Markieren Sie Text, um ihn mit Redner, Zeitstempel und Link zu zitieren.
Weitere Optionen
Senate Rules Committee California State Senate
Ihren Sitzungen folgenRedner 1
Alright. That has three votes. We'll leave that on call for members to add on. Next item, for governor's appointments, not required to appear. Item two e, Anacubas, for the California Law Revision Commission.
I'll entertain a motion.
Redner 1
Alright. That is two to one. We will leave that, the roll open for members to add on. And next, we have last item for governor's appointments. Not required to appear.
Item two f, David, Hubner, JD, for the California Law Revision Commission. I'll entertain a motion.
Redner 1
Alright. That has two votes, and we will leave that, open for members to add on. Next, we I would like to take up item three, reference of bills to committees. I'll entertain a motion. So moved.
We have a motion by, vice chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?
Redner 2
Limon? Aye. Limon, aye. Grove? Aye.
Grove, aye. Jones? Laird? Aye. Laird, aye.
Reyes? Three votes.
Redner 1
Alright. That has three votes. We'll leave that, open for members to add on. Our final items before we return to governor's appointees are items four through seven for acknowledgment. I'll entertain a motion, please.
Redner 2
Can we please call the roll? Limon? Aye. Limon, aye. Grove?
Aye. Grove, aye. Jones? Laird? Aye.
Laird, aye. Reyes? Aye. Reyes, aye. Four votes.
Redner 1
Alright. We have four zero. We'll leave that open for members to add on. We will turn now to governor's appointees required to appear. Item one a, the appointment of Brian Bishop as director of the division of adult parolee operations, department of corrections and rehabilitation.
Director Bishop, we welcome you to come forward. Welcome. You have one to two minutes to provide, your opening testimony. Should you have any introductions or guests, feel free to, include those in your opening testimony. We'll give you a little signal when your time comes up, but you may begin when you're ready.
Redner 6
Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and distinguished members of the Senate Rules Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, and I'm deeply honored by governor Gavin Newsom's appointment. I'm grateful for the trustee and his office have placed me to lead this important organization. I would like to acknowledge and thank my family.
Several of them are here with me today. Robin, my wife and best friend of nearly thirty years, whose unwavering love, sacrifice, and encouragement have sustained me through every chapter of my career. Our four adult children, Morgan, Garrett, Landon, Abby, my loving parents, Dawn and Debbie, and my grandmother, Bridget. I also wanna recognize those present here today and those watching online from the division of adult parole operations and my former team, the Office of Correctional Safety. I'm equally grateful today to CDCR's executive leadership for their guidance, mentorship, and faith in me.
For for nearly two and a half decades, I served in law enforcement. And part of that, I served our nation as a United States Marine. The marine corps taught me lessons that have stayed with me throughout my life, discipline, accountability, humility, courage, and the responsibility to always lead from the front. Those values shaped my life, and I've carried them with me throughout my personal life and throughout my career, especially now as a leader entrusted with helping guide DAPO into the future. Throughout my extensive career, I've seen that public safety is strongest when accountability and rehabilitation move forward together.
I will continue leading DAPA with a deep commitment to staff safety, community safety, and public service while advancing reentry and rehabilitation pathways to support the success of those under our care. I also want to acknowledge the tragedy our department suffered last July with the loss of pro agent Joshua Byrd. His passing and sacrifice is a solemn reminder of the risk carried by our staff that serve this department and our communities every day. I believe I'm here today not only to help lead this organization forward, but to help ensure we continue to honor our fallen. My primary focus as the DAPO director is to instill a culture of pride, emotional well-being, resilience, and selfless service to this organization.
I'd like to thank this committee for their time. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to your questions today.
Redner 4
Thank you, Director Bishop, for being here. Thank you for your opening statements. I appreciate your leadership, and I appreciate your resiliency and your commitment to take care of staff and, still make sure that, incarcerated persons have an opportunity for success outside of a cell. Also, thank you for your service to this country. The first question I have is, as the director of the adult operations program that you oversee with, what specific data driven processes does DAPO use to identify the highest risk parolees, particularly violent sex offenders, repeat violent felons, or gang affiliated individuals?
And with those serious mental health risks, are they a risk that they could possibly have? Was there heightened supervision, out there? Or is there a process where you, I guess, assess them differently? I'd like to know what process you use.
Redner 6
Yes. Thank you for the question, Senator. So we are a data driven organization. We have robust data sets, in a variety of ways. From coming from the standpoint of housing, employment, stability.
We use systems that help track their location. Obviously, GPS monitoring is our enhanced supervision model. And we use that data to help us articulate, design, and mitigate risk when it comes to the parole population. When it comes to, how we supervise, those that are we would consider, you know, at a more elevated level or higher risk level. That's an ongoing process when they're under supervision.
Redner 5
So there are risk assessment tools that the through their especially for the two ninety population that you mentioned, Senator, during their routine therapy sessions, they have ongoing risk assessment tools are continued to use. And so based on their level of treatment, based on their level of, let's say, receptiveness to the treatment, their receptiveness to their conditions of parole, we can elevate or lower that level of interfacing or interaction depending on the circumstances. And it's meant to be a fluid supervision model. We want to reward those that are performing well, but we want to be able to elevate that level for those that are showing heightened signs of risk or heightened signs of concerns. And we want to continue to make sure our agents have the ability to engage with them, interface with them, get them to the appropriate treatments that are going to help them either recover or get back on track.
Redner 6
So I would say it's fluid model that we use risk assessment tools. It's an ongoing process. And oftentimes, depending on their level of risk, they may we may increase their conditions to where they have to meet with therapists a couple times a week, right? So it's it just really depends on, that risk level, but it's in conjunction with our BHR, behavioral health reintegration staff, or clinicians trained in identifying those types of vulnerabilities and those types of risks.
Redner 4
Thank you. Are you still working with local law enforcement? You mentioned GPS electronic monitoring. What about frequent drug and alcohol testing or unannounced visits?
Redner 6
Absolutely. Thank you, Senator. I'm really glad you asked that question. Part of my focus as the DAPO Director is I come from a very strong public safety background. I've worked in multiple different, avenues, in law enforcement from, fugitive apprehension to I was assigned for many years to the, FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
So public safety for me is near and dear to my heart. But more importantly than that, the collaboration with local law enforcement is where I found the greatest level of success. What I bring to DAPO and my my experience and my leadership style is we have to leverage our relationships with these law enforcement partners. We have to build bridges with them. It's it's not only it's not encouraged.
It's expected in this organization. And to that point, Senor, I'd like to say that since I showed up to DAPO, it's only been a short while, I've been to 42 all 42 parole offices. I've met with every everybody at every office. My my style of leadership is intentional and present. In doing that, I'm encouraging every one of those unit supervisors.
What are you doing with local law enforcement? How's your relationship with the local law enforcement? And I and we had one instance, in a town up in one of the northern counties where they said, oh, it's a little fractured right now. I said, okay. Let's set up a meeting, and I went and met with that, chief of police.
That's my role as a leader. I have to set that tone and set that example. I'll always do that. Additionally, since we've been since I've been here as the deputy director, the direction to our organization is we will be intentional with when it comes to community community compliance sweeps. Since September, we've done nine major community compliance sweeps from San Bernardino County all the way up to Shasta County.
Nine sweeps in just about five months. Those are in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies. Those are with the county, with the local municipalities. We have targeted searches where we're increasing in my opinion, that increases the public confidence. It builds proficiency in our staff.
It holds our parole population accountable to the conditions that are parole, but it creates a culture of public trust, in my opinion. Those nine sweeps produced two eighteen contacts, 124 total arrests, and 20 recovered firearms. I think those are important stats because those are firearms that are no longer on the streets that are able to victimize our community. That's the difference. We are looking to enforce the conditions of parole, but then also push rehabilitation programs because those our programs, our rehabilitation efforts build stability, which ultimately provide stability for our community and a safer community.
Redner 4
Thank you. That's the answer I wanted, that you will work with local law enforcement. So I appreciate you. I look forward to your confirmation, and thank you, madam Pro Tem, for letting me ask questions.
Redner 3
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Let me follow-up on a couple of things from Senator Grove. I think one of the questions that a lot of us have and by the way, thank you for meeting with me and I'm sorry it was so abbreviated because various committees were running over. For laypeople, we don't totally understand the line between discretion and nondiscretion. How are you given a process that you have to run off?
And yeah, there's sort of some discretion in how you implement it, but you don't have discretion in the rules of distances or other things. How do you handle sort of the whole notion of what's in your discretion or not in your discretion?
Redner 6
Well, that's a I appreciate the question, Senator. From a discretionary standpoint, especially when we're talking about parole supervision, much of what we do in parole supervision is rooted in penal code. So where we have areas of discretion, we're going to use the lens of how does this impact the community. We're always gonna look at the lens of victim awareness. How does these how do these decisions we're making impact the victim?
Second, how do they impact the community? Then we'll look at and then we'll look at other issues like what's the, how does this impact our, supervised person. But it's always gonna be from the lens of the community first. And so that discretionary and I hope I'm answering the question You're doing fine. Okay.
That discretionary process really is where it's important that that agent of record. It's why those home visits are so important. They get a real sense of what the needs are of this individual, as well as their behavioral health therapist, their parole agent, the unit supervisor. Their input is vital. They're the boots on the ground.
So we need their input. We need their feedback. And there are times where we have to make a discretionary decision on, Okay, is this is this is this parole violation that this person did? Is this a one off, or is this a habitual, circumstance? And that's where that discretion, that's where those decisions, need to be made.
And I'll reiterate, we're always going to, in this division, we're always going to, be mindful, and our center approach will always be, on victim awareness and what's the outlying risk to the community and to the public. That's the forefront of our discretionary decision making process. Largely And that's, when it's outside of the scope of penal code. Some some things we don't have discretion on and we have to just we follow penal code and we follow the leg of the law.
Redner 3
And and when you talk about victim awareness, if somebody is placed back in the county from which they came, the odds are ninety five percent the victim is in that county. How do you manage that?
Redner 6
Thank you, Senator. So it largely does depend on the commitment offense or the crime, right? We have to take that first in consideration. There are we while while parole is not necessarily responsible for notification process of our victim, services or our victim and survivor services, we have a program in CDCR that engages and interfaces with victims, and we work closely with them. In circumstances for example, in a circumstance where there is a victim and the victim has noticed our Office of Victim and Survivor Services that, Hey, I want to be I would like to be advised when this person is released from prison, or, I would like to make sure that this person isn't placed near me because I have victim concerns.
We take that seriously. We have to look at and the Penal Code Section 3,003 actually provides parole that opportunity for out of county or out of city placement for someone based on the needs of the public. And it's always good. That statute also provides that that has to be focused primarily on victim advocacy. So we have good statute in penal code that that allows us to move someone to protect a victim.
In addition to that, we have provisions with our GPS monitoring system where we can create inclusion zones, exclusion zones to protect the victim. That way, if there's any time they get within a certain radius of that victim's house, we are immediately notified and we'll deploy agents to the field. So we have provisions and we have safeguards, if you will, to help protect those victims.
Redner 3
And we were rushed because of me. And you mentioned a 35 mile distance. What was that?
Redner 6
In circumstances where there's victim concerns, we can do what's called an administrative, transfer. Typically, we, that transfer process would look like 35 miles outside of where that victim either works or live lives. And, so we have that ability. Again, that's within statute and penal code to allow us to do that. That process is, usually done on the much way on the front end of someone actually coming out to parole.
We we start that process. We start the parole process as much as two hundred days prior to their release. So we in reach into the prisons and start engaging with that person so that they have a much more successful transition post release. Things we start looking for one of the primary things we start looking for is where is this person gonna live? Are there victim concerns?
So we'll look we'll figure those things out. We try to figure those things out on the front end prior or prior to their release. So, know, things like programs, transitional housing, you know, what types of rehabilitative programs that we can get that person into, but also being mindful of making sure that we're not putting any undue risk at victims of their commitment offense. That 35 mile hour or 35 mile radius is considered.
Redner 3
I sort of observed that only the city and county of San Francisco is smaller than the county of Santa Cruz and that you'd be hard pressed to find a place that's 35 miles away. So if you really had a problem with a victim, means you wouldn't be placing them in the county they came from.
Redner 6
You're absolutely correct, Senator. Usually that does result in an out of county placement. And so that can be difficult. That's very it's very difficult because, I mean, I can imagine counties may not want someone like that. Again, we have to do what's best, for the public, excuse me, and for that, the victims in that regard.
So out of county placement is a process. There are processes also where, someone can request to transfer out of county, but there's a lot of stipulations, and there's an investigative process that we require, before anything like that One is final question. In the background material, was sort of I should have
Redner 3
known this, but you supervise over 3,000 people that are unhoused. Talk about the challenges of trying to supervise people that are unhoused.
Redner 6
Yeah. That is a unique challenge to parole, Senator, and I appreciate that. Housing is definitely one of the primary stability factors in someone's successful reintegration. So so we work diligently. Again, I talk about that two ten day in reach into the prisons to try to get them into housing.
And and usually, it's a choice. Unfortunately, for a lot of these folks, it's a choice not to be housed, because we do have programs, avenues, community based partners, community based organizations. There are programs, even our DRP, Department of Rehabilitation Planning, can, in some instances, fund up to a year of of housing for them. When someone is on parole and they're unhoused, we it it is difficult. We have to interface with them.
We have to go to where they live. We have to or where they're staying or sleeping. For those under GPS, we try to establish a pattern of life. So we go, okay, we know where they kind of coalesce. We know where they hang out.
We it's it's difficult because we don't have that opportunity to go, okay. When we do a home visit, we go visit someone on parole. We get an understanding of what their conditions are like. Someone on that's unhoused, that's that's hard to achieve. So, you're absolutely right.
It's difficult. Our agents do a really good job of it. I mean, there there are agents that unfortunately have to go to a an overpass bridge to find someone that's under their caseload and try to conduct a, a visit. That that's an unfortunate reality in parole and community supervision. But we work diligently to try to get them housed.
We have, monthly PAC meetings at each one. PACT is our parole and community team meetings. We have resource fairs continual. Was just at one last month. 122 different programs at this resource fair.
So we have robust rehabilitative programs in the state. The hard part is getting those people that are not interested necessarily being housed, motivating them into those programs.
Redner 3
Just one last follow-up question. Given that Senator Grove asked about the relationships that you would have with local law enforcement, How do you develop the relationships with local service providers that might address unhoused issues or mental health issues or things that aren't direct law enforcement?
Redner 6
I appreciate that, Senator. And those community, those resource fairs, our community reentry unit we have a community reentry unit who does an amazing job of outreach. They're tasked with building those relationships, fostering those relationships, looking for different opportunities, different community providers, community based organizations. And really, they're sort of the network element of that. And so they have an amazing network.
They really do an amazing job finding those types of venues, those types of providers. And when tasked with a really difficult situation, if we have maybe a placement that's very difficult to find a home for or find a program for, Their network is amazing and their passion for those rehabilitative programs, I'm blown away every time I go and meet with our staff. And again, they have these resources. And I think these are amazing because you'll see sometimes hundreds of different providers there. And that's a great opportunity when we have our supervised persons like, hey, come to this fair.
There's gonna be employment opportunities. We've I've been to them. They've had dental vans. And there's just a a lot of programs available. There's really no shortage, in my opinion.
It's getting them directed there and motivating them to get there.
Redner 3
Thank you. You were very responsive to my questions. I appreciate it. Thank you, senator.
Redner 4
When you do out of placement counties because of the 35 mile radius issue, are they contiguous counties so that they're closer to their family, are they not contiguous counties?
Redner 6
Unfortunately, senator, no. It's not usually continuous. It's usually based on the, criminogenic and programmatic needs. So oftentimes, especially with the two ninety, we have to find the program that's receptive to them, and it would be, you know, ideal to keep them close to a continuous county because usually there's family reunification close by. We obviously prefer that.
But in my experience, it's seldom the case. More often It's just curious. Yeah, more often than not, it's not. Thank you, Senator.
Redner 7
I appreciate the questions asked by my colleagues, and I was going to ask you about the the the homeless. I saw that parole agents aren't required to make sure people are housed. And in your research though, only fourteen percent were unhoused or homeless under parole supervision. Another statistic was that the formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to be homeless. Now the initial questions were already asked by my colleague.
So I wanted to ask you, you have some private for profit corporations that CDCR contracts with. So my question is about the oversight that you have over these for profit corporations whose job is to secure housing for people transitioning out of prison? And to ask what time limitations are they allowed to set?
Redner 6
Thank you for the question, Senator. So in regards to some of these for profit providers, and I want to make sure I understand your question correctly, as far as what are some of the safeguards to make sure they're doing their job correctly,
Redner 6
a Our team of folks will do monthly reconciliation of the invoices, making sure the invoices look good. So we continue to monitor that pulse through our budget and our procurement folks. And our DRP, Department of Rehabilitation program, that's a separate division, but we work in conjunction with them. They oversee a majority of these contracts. And they do annual, and oftentimes we do DAPO and DRP will do joint site visits at these locations to ensure that they're basically, they're meeting the needs of these folks and ensuring that they're up to the standards and they're following through on their commitment.
As well as for a lot of these programs so we get a weekly report that shows the utilization of these programs. How are we sending enough people to them? And so, you know, the benchmark we usually look for is I don't want to see a program I don't want to see one of these programs under 70% because that's being underutilized, that's not a good use of taxpayer money. So if it starts to fall into that, we're gonna take a keen look at that and go, okay. Is this, better suited somewhere else where we're gonna get a higher, return on our investment as an agency and as a state?
So we there are safeguards and and and and provisions and balances that we take to look at that, including, like I said, on-site visits. And we also, continue to check-in with them. And then I work closely with our, DRP folks to make sure that we're collaborating effectively in that regard.
Redner 7
Thank you. And my final question is, you have a long history of doing so many wonderful things. Thank you for your service to our country as well. Very beginning. Great training
Redner 6
I'll I'll say this, senator, without, not many people know this, but on July 17 was one of the darkest days in Dapo's history. Parole agent Joshua bill Byrd was tragically taken from us. It's also a little known fact that he was killed around 12:30 in the afternoon, and my interview for this position was at about 1PM. I say that to you because prior to that, I did want this position because I thought it was a good opportunity, a good career opportunity. It was a good it was a good opportunity for me and my career and my family.
That moment changed everything for me. And I'll be honest with you. I had clarity in that moment that what this organization needed was somebody to guide them through some of the darkest days. I believe I'm that individual. I believe I knew exactly what they were gonna go through.
I mentioned it in my interview with the governor's office that I know what this organization's about to go through. I wanna be that person that leads them through this. I'm reminded of Isaiah six eight, and I was in that moment that said and I heard the voice of the Lord say, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And I said, here am I.
Send me. And that's that's what I heard in that moment. And so I say that to this committee because I believe I'm guided by my faith and I'm compelled by duty to serve this organization. That's what I'll do with honor, courage, and commitment. I promise that.
Redner 1
Thank you. And thank you for all all your answers, and the information you've shared with us. I I wanna ask you just a little bit about, we we've talked a lot about housing, what happens. And so I wanna just ask if there are in some of the the gaps that you have seen between reentry and also kinda the community services network, what are those gaps? Can you talk about the gaps that you still see that you are going to be working on or that you have to continue to work on?
Redner 6
I will try to keep this short, Madam Chair, because I get really excited about this. There are gaps. And I think one of the things that we're finding is post AB 109 and through some of the redistricting that occurred in CDCR and parole, we've seen our parole population fall. What we also saw was our footprint in the state, when it comes to offices, has shrunk significantly, and appropriately so, as the population falls. But what that's created is very challenging geographic areas.
So some of our parole offices are covering areas that are a couple hours away, and that's super problematic for our parole population when they have to try sometimes they have to try to get to a parole office to meet their therapist or their parole agent, and it could be two hours away. So those are real challenges. And we see that in the South, and we see it especially in the North, because the North is much more spread out. But we see it throughout the state. That's a challenge.
I do have some ideas, and we are pursuing some opportunities. I know that there were some grants for some of the county probations where they're using mobile parole units to go into these areas. And so that's an area where actually my team's looking into, to try to look for grant opportunities or funding opportunities where we can actually employ something like that. Because I think that's what's needed in these geographically challenged areas so we can take the services to those folks and take that burden of jumping on a bus and trying to get to a parole office. You know, that's just it's unfortunate.
It's not conducive to their rehabilitation. And it just doesn't encourage collaboration when we have that big, vast amount of space in between a parole office and where one of our supervised persons lives.
Redner 1
Thank you. Seeing no additional questions, I am going to invite any members of the public. If you would like to come forward now, if you are in support, please do so. At this moment, you just state your name, affiliation, and your position.
Redner 6
Good afternoon. Ryan Souza speaking on behalf of a coalition of reentry providers, including Amity Foundation, Health Right three sixty, and West Care Foundation. We just want to support Director Bishop's confirmation and thank him for the conversations he's already had. You heard it here today. He believes in public safety, but also balancing rehabilitation, and we're just really excited to continue working with him.
Redner 1
Thank you. Alright. Seeing nobody else here in support, is there anybody in opposition? This is the time to come forward. Alright.
Seeing no one else, here in opposition, then we will bring it back, for a motion.
Redner 4
Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, madam pro tem. It would be my honor to move your confirmation to the full Senate floor. Thank you, sir, for your continued support of our law enforcement, of those who are on the staff side, and also making sure that it's
Redner 1
a rehabilitation offer options so that people are successful outside the cell. We do have a motion. The motion by has been made by Vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?
Redner 2
Limon? Aye. Limon, aye. Grove? Aye.
Grove, aye. Jones? Aye. Jones, aye. Laird?
Laird, aye. Reyes? Aye. Reyes, aye. Five votes.
Redner 1
Congratulations. The appointment has been approved to move to the full Senate for confirmation.
Redner 1
And lastly, we are going to turn now to Governor's appointees required to appear item one b, the appointment of Sarah Larson as the Director of the Division of Facility Planning, Construction and Management, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Director Larson, you have the opportunity to provide one to two minutes, for your opening testimony to the committee. In your opening, you're welcome to make any introductions of your guests as well. You may begin when you're ready.
Redner 9
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee, and thank you for allowing me to appear before you today. I would like to begin by thanking the governor, the secretary, and the undersecretary for this appointment and for their continued support. I would also like to thank the facilities team. I am here today representing the work of many dedicated staff that I am honored to support as director.
I would like to acknowledge the people who are here with me today. I have my husband, Anton, who supports me in everything my mom, Debbie, who has taught me everything that I know, and my sister, Megan. And I especially want to acknowledge my son, Jeno, who is here today. He had to miss a field trip to come. And my daughter, Noemi, who is missing her nap to be here.
I thank them for their unwavering support, their love, and for reminding me of the best, most important parts of life. I am also lucky to have many people watching from afar, including my dad, Steve, my other sister, Jordan, and my mother-in-law, Moriah, along with many friends and colleagues. And I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to give special special thanks and credit to the many professional women who have supported me on my journey here today. As they say, it takes a village, and I am very grateful and lucky to have mine. I've worked for CDCR for nearly a decade, and I am proud of the change that the department has affected over that time and to have been part of that transformation.
As we look forward, I believe this role is a significant opportunity to create positive, lasting change for the people who live and work in our facilities and for the communities that we serve. I'm grateful to be part of that change, and I look forward to answering any questions that you
Redner 4
Chair Grove. Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. Thank you for being here today, and your family is absolutely lovely.
Redner 4
You have 11 grandchildren, five under five, and that's a lot of fun where you're at right now. And so how does CCCR aligning its capital budget staffing resources and infrastructure footprint with a declining prison population?
Redner 9
Well, I think, as the committee is very aware, we have reduced our footprint relatively significantly. We've closed all of our contracted facilities in and out of state. We've also closed several of our CDCR owned and operated facilities that are now in, closed or deactivated status. So we have reduced that footprint relatively significantly. I do believe at this point that the footprint that we have is appropriate for the population that we're serving.
As I've discussed in front of the legislature before, anytime we close a prison, we're talking about about a 100 additional people going to our other remaining facilities, and that's a 100 more people competing for programming space, for space in the visiting room, for opportunities with the employment opportunities that we have at our facilities, and it makes it more challenging to operate. We still are above our design capacity in terms of our population. And so I think really what we're looking at right now in terms of our facilities is how do we plan for the future of the footprint that we have, knowing that many of our facilities are aging.
Redner 4
Since you brought up aging facilities, what's CDC are doing to address infrastructure issues with some of the things that we've read in the papers and articles about heat exhaustion and heat stress because of inadequate air conditioning facilities in our facilities, both for staff and the incarcerated population?
Redner 9
Yeah. And when many of our facilities were built, they weren't built with any sort of refrigerant cooling in them. The comfort of our population and our staff, I think, just wasn't a priority. Many of our facilities were built in the prison building boom in the '80s. And so that was a time of three strikes.
They were really just trying to build capacity. Obviously, times are changing, and I think we've recognized that we need to make that investment in cooling infrastructure. We do have an air cooling pilot program that we're working on right now in the facilities division. So at three of our locations, we're adding insulation as well as HVAC, so refrigerant cooling and mechanical cooling infrastructure at those locations to see kind of what's the appropriate mix of infrastructure. Adding cooling infrastructure at all of our facilities is a significant fiscal and operational undertaking.
And so we want to make sure through the pilot that the approach that we're using is the most effective and the most cost effective approach. And so we're going to use the data from that pilot to inform what our plan is moving forward at the remaining facilities.
Redner 3
Thank you. And my last question is that along the same question that I just asked, what are you doing to prioritize safety of both the staff and the incarcerated person as these, construction revamps are taking place, as you're modernizing new facility or facilities? And, you know, how are you gonna make sure staff and the incarcerated person are safe?
Redner 11
Yeah. I mean, it is such a challenge in prisons, but I also think we have such an opportunity when we're taking on building projects to think about how we can design the infrastructure to really support our staff and support the population in a way that maybe it previously just was in their way in trying to do their jobs. I think the project at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center is an excellent example of how you can achieve that type of construction that's new and looks very modern and welcoming and, I think provides a more healing environment for the people who live and work there, while also introducing all of these new opportunities for safety. So for example, that project uses, a significant amount of new technology, like cameras and things like that, to provide additional safety, compared to the infrastructure that we have had previously. So I think there's really a great opportunity to do that.
Redner 9
In terms of how we do safety when we're, doing prison projects, it's obviously a real challenge to try to do a project in an active environment. A benefit of a project like what we did at San Quentin is that we actually kind of built that outside of a secure perimeter and then kind of rebuilt the secure perimeter around that new facility, which allowed us to build much faster because we didn't have to do all of the tool control, safety check kind of things that you normally have to do when you're doing prison construction. So I think we've learned a lot from that project in terms of how we can, you know, create safety And I think also healing in our facilities.
Redner 7
Well, was just going to ask you why you want this job. With all the budget shortfalls, and you have the experience having worked in the LAO's office and with Senator Bell, and of course all of your tenure with CDCR, There are many budget shortfalls that you have to deal with and try to balance, as has been asked earlier. So why do you want this job?
Redner 9
I really like to help. And I felt like Facilities was a place where I could really help. I do think it's a new frontier for the department. We've added a lot of programming in my time at the department. We've had a significant reduction in the population.
I think we've made really innovative strides when it comes to how we're managing our security and managing our prisons. But what we haven't done is provide the infrastructure to support all of those things. And so this just felt like such an opportunity for me to really help move that piece along to support the work that everyone else in the department is doing. And I just I loved the chance to do that. It's it is an undertaking, I admit.
I'm lucky to have a really great team, though. The facilities team has a ton of experience. We have very low turnover. And so I'm really grateful to that team and looking forward to working with them to make those changes and support the rest of the operations.
Redner 5
Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam PT. Thank you.
Senator Laird?
Redner 3
Thank you very much. And now I understand the connection, that I was late for our appointment because it was the local government committee that was going on and on and on.
Redner 3
get the connection now. I missed that before. But thank you for that abbreviated meeting. And I know one of the things I indicated I might ask about is what's the status of the closure of the Norco facility?
Redner 9
So we are on kind of in progress and on track to close that facility in line with the budget. So I believe that's October 2026. From the facility side, thankfully thankfully, not thankfully, we are relatively experienced at this point in how to negotiate, navigate prison closures, and kind of how we run those operations. So we have a plan for moving that active facility to being in what's called cold shutdown, where my office
Redner 9
Yeah. So we will maintain that facility in cold shutdown once all of the population, the staff, and everyone depart the facility.
Redner 3
Thank you. And then the other thing I thought I'd ask about, and we mentioned it talked about it briefly, is when the lake or flood was happening next to the Corcoran prison, there was a period of time where it was thought that prison might have to be evacuated. And we had some officials from the department in front of us when that happened and they were laying out what it would take. The fact it would take two weeks and a different level of prisoners. And so while flood might be one, we do have some prisons that are really in high fire areas.
And so how do you plan for just disasters? What is on the books with disaster planning, and what might happen to some of your facilities?
Redner 9
Yeah. So our Office of Correctional Safety does maintain kind of emergency planning for all of our facilities, and what happens in various kinds of incidents and disasters and how the department would respond in each of those cases. From the facility's perspective, one of the things that we're trying to do is abate the risk, Right? Just mitigate the risk that any of that is going to happen. So, for example, in high fire hazard areas, that's maintaining any the the weeds and things like that to make sure that we're not posing a fire risk.
One, you know, kind of helpful thing about, a prison compared to a community is that the secure perimeter is usually relatively free of, any sort of greenery, vegetation, for security related purposes. But one of the things that we do is abate that risk, and that includes at our closed facilities as well. And other things that we would do would be maintaining, you know, all of our ventilation systems in good working order and making sure that all of the materials that folks need are available for that, making sure that, you know, we have adequate supply energy supply to maintain operations in the event of emergencies and things like that. So on the facility side, those are the kinds of roles that we would play.
Redner 3
I don't even know how you'd manage because having the misfortune of being through some cataclysmic disasters in previous jobs. I mean, when we had the one hundred year flood years ago when I was on the city council, who knew that redwood trees would batter down a bridge? Who knew that the bridge that would get battered down would be the one that had the water main that connected both sides of town? All these things. Even though you have plans, in the moment, how are you operationally able to pivot to whatever the crisis is within the disaster that's hitting you?
Redner 9
Yeah. I'd have to defer to our Office of Correctional Safety, I think, about how they manage that. I know they do stand up like incident command centers. We do a lot of mutual aid with other agencies as well. You know, there's that active coordination.
It's why those relationships with the community are so important. And even on the facility side, we maintain those sorts of community relationships. And we've provided mutual aid in disaster times as well to other public safety entities. So I'd have to defer to them, though I think about how in the moment they might pivot
Redner 3
I from what strategy to had eight years with CAL FIRE. And I actually did a session because there were certain things they hadn't anticipated. We're in the middle of the drought and there's incredible fires. And I said what do you do? They said we scoop up water from ponds and other places and then we pay it back.
I said we're in the most intense drought in modern time. How do you intend to pay that back? And they all got quiet. And there's fire hydrant cleaning and nobody understands why fire hydrants are shooting water in the middle of the air when they're limited to 50 gallons a day. They had to revisit that.
And so I just hope in your coordination with them you'll have those kind of conversations because it is always the unanticipated things that happen. So thank you. You've been very responsive to my questions.
Redner 10
Senator Laird set it up. Following up from last week on the conversation regarding warm and cold closures, I think we've been updated that all of the prisons that are closed now are in cold closure. Can you kinda describe for us what that means? And if we needed to reopen one, what would it take to reopen one?
Redner 9
Yeah. So a cold shutdown would be maintaining, you know, the permits that we need for anything that we have at the facility. So be that, you know, like fuel storage or maintaining a levy or something like that, any sort of permits, those kinds of things, abating weeds and, and fire risk, not posing a nuisance to the community. So making sure that we have adequate security, you know, doors, gates are locked, doors are locked, those kinds of things. But it really is very minimalist.
So for example, if a roof leaks, we're not gonna fix that, right? We have a very, very small special repair budget in the department. It's $26,000,000 for our facilities. Typically, if you're talking in the private industry, you're gonna wanna maintain 1% to 4% of replacement value In terms of your special repair budget for a CDCR, that would be almost $900,000,000 a year. And so we don't have that kind of funding available, which means that all of our money really has to go to the facilities that we are currently operating to maintain them in working condition and can't go to our closed facilities to do any sort of maintenance or repair there because I have leaking facilities where people work and live Right.
That I have to repair. So that cold shutdown is is very minimalist. In terms of reactivating a facility, I think it it really depends on the facility that you're talking about. For some of our facilities that are co located, we're maintaining some of that shared infrastructure for the other prison. So a good example would be, Chuckwalla Valley in Blythe, where Ironwood, is right next door, and we have some shared infrastructure in terms of, like, water wastewater systems, that kind of thing.
Those are in relatively good condition. And so, you know, perhaps that might be more easy to reopen. But, I mean, really, it it would be probably a significant expense to reopen any closed facility. I would note to the extent that the department needs additional capacity, we've also deactivated a lot of housing units, and yards in our currently open facilities. So it's essentially, like, closing part of a facility.
Senator Laird and I talked about earlier, in San Luis Obispo County, there's the California Men's Colony. We are still operating CMC, as it's known, West. CMC East is a deactivated facility, but it's still there on grounds. Those we maintain in much more workable condition. And we have a checklist for staff at the institution about how to maintain those facilities in more operable condition.
So to the extent that the department ever needed additional capacity, I would think that that would be the place that we would likely look first as opposed to our closed facilities because they are just in that cold shutdown mode.
Redner 9
For our closed facilities? So for, CRC, so Norco, what we've proposed is doing a contracted security service
Redner 10
one thing you said triggered a follow-up question. That is, for example, when the one unit is closed in San Luis Obispo at DeMence Colony, Cal Poly and other things are on the same water line or used to same water and suddenly water consumption gets cut in half because one unit is closed. And they're hungry to know if that water is available to be able to be contracted or used. Who makes that decision or who makes the determination that because it sounded like the desire was oh it might reopen sometime, we're just going to hold it in reserve even though it was not essentially being used. Who makes that decision?
Redner 3
Or if I wanted to make sure that the Cal Poly people were talking to you, how would that work?
Redner 9
You could absolutely refer them to me, and I would be happy to look into kind of whatever the individual circumstance is. It will vary by location because some of our locations are on their own well water supply. Some of our locations are on municipal water supply. Some of them have there are just, like, a I have been amazed by the variety of circumstances that our institutions have when it comes to water.
Redner 3
Well, triggers another one. And that is the Salinas Valley Prison. The city of Soledad uses half the system and the prison uses half the system. And there was a time before I represented that area that I got money in the budget that would supplement the cities and then it was never claimed and seemed to go away. And yet that project wouldn't move ahead unless the state appropriated its half.
It's why we did it in the budget because the locals had their half and the whole project was being held until the state appropriated their half. So would just look forward to working with you on all those issues. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Redner 1
Great. Thank you. Thanks for the information. As you know, it's sometimes hard to get really excited about some of the facilities, especially when they have a lot of needs. And I'm actually wondering if you can share what does excite you about your job in relation to the with the potential for facilities.
Like, what are the things that you're like, look, these aren't just fixes. These are things that I'm looking forward to, you know, improve the quality of experience, if that could be said, for folks?
Redner 9
Yeah. That's such a wonderful question. I do get excited about our infrastructure. I agree. It's not like, it's not usually the thing that excites people.
But I've been working with the team since I've come on board on infrastructure master planning because I think a lot of what we've been trying to do with our infrastructure is make do. Because there are so many priorities in the state and ways that we wanna invest in our communities that it's really hard to spend money on the prison infrastructure. And so we've been doing, you know, little roof repairs here and trying to, you know, build in accessibility accommodations there, and haven't really taken a holistic look at the infrastructure and say, like, what's the population that we serve now? What are the needs that they have? What do our staff need?
Like, what would help them and make them safer and more comfortable? And so we're in the process of doing that review and talking about more substantial infrastructure projects focused on specific institutions. So rather than, you know, the governor talked about this when he did the ribbon cutting for Saint Quentin, but rather than sprinkling money a little bit around the system, building something where you can really see the impact of it. If you have a chance to visit the rehabilitation center, that construction is the thing that excites me. So you can sit in a study carol at in the library in the new building and look out at the Marin Headlands and feel your system just relax as you're there.
And I want that for our staff, and I want that for the population. I visited, that new build with someone who had been previously incarcerated there, And he talked about his experience living at San Quentin and being able to smell the ocean for years and never see it. And now at San Quentin, there are outdoor rooftop classrooms where you can look and see the water that that institution is next to. Those are the things that really excite me, just the healing that we could create with the spaces that we have.
Redner 1
Thank you. At this time, we're going to turn it to the public. And so, there are members of the public who would like to speak in support, just your name, your affiliation, and your position, please. You're welcome to come forward.
D'Anna Currod Armel of HOLE Consulting. My firm represents a lot of organizations working on criminal justice reform. Really pleased to support one of my favorite thought partners in this work, Sarah Larson, to this role. There's no better person for the job. Thank you.
Redner 8
I'm Ken Hartman. I'm the executive director of Transformative Programming Works. I served thirty eight years in the California prison system and been out about eight and a half. Since I've out, I've had multiple opportunities to work with Ms. Larson.
Redner 11
It's really exciting to see somebody I know who's a truly good human being elevated to this level in the department. We support her a 100%.
Redner 2
Thank you. Natasha Minsker, Smart Justice California. Very happy to support Sarah Larson.
Redner 8
Ryan Souza, once again, on behalf of reentry, groups, Amity Foundation, Health Right three sixty, and West Care Foundation. She is incredibly smart, collaborative, and innovative, and we support absolutely any position that she would be in. We appreciate your time today. Thank you.
Redner 9
Espan Nunez here on behalf of the Anti Recidivism Coalition, CROP, and also CSJ, California's for Safety and Justice. Also, I've had the pleasure of working with Ms. Larsen, such an inclusive leader. We're proud to support her today. Thank you.
Redner 1
Great. Thank you. If there is anyone in the room who wishes to speak in opposition, this is your opportunity. All right. Seeing no one, in opposition, we're going to bring it back.
And I welcome motion if there is a motion. Sure.
Redner 1
up floor for a vote. Thank you. We have a motion, and we will now call the roll.
Redner 2
Limon? Aye. Limon aye. Grove? Aye.
Grove, aye. Jones? Aye. Jones, aye. Laird?
Aye. Laird, aye. Reyes?
Redner 2
Reyes, aye. Five to zero.
Thank you. The appointment has been approved to move to the full Senate for confirmation. Congratulations. So at this time, this portion, of appointments is, concluded, but we are going to go through the role, to do add ons to some of these. So I'm going to begin with, governor's appointments not required to appear starting with item two c, the appointment of Olivia Mae Asuncion as a member to the Commission on Disability Access.
Redner 2
for absent members? Jones? Aye. Jones, aye. Reyes?
Aye. Reyes, aye. Five to zero.
Redner 1
Alright. That is approved. Five to zero. Next item for governor's appointments not required to appear is item two d, William Adams for the California Exposition and State Fair Boards of Director. Can we please call the roll for absent members?
Redner 1
Alright. That item is approved. The next item is governor's appointments not required to appear item two e, Anacubas, for the California Law Revision Commission.
Redner 2
Okay. We split them. Okay. Jones? No.
Jones, no. Reyes? Aye. Reyes, aye. Three to two.
Redner 1
Alright. That item is approved, three to two. Next, we have governor's appointments not required to appear item two f, David, Hubner, JD of the California Law Revision Commission. Can we
Redner 2
please call the roll? Grove? Jones? No. Jones, no.
Reyes? Aye. Reyes, aye. Three to one.
Redner 1
Alright. That item is approved, with three to one vote. Next, we have item three, reference to bills to committees. Can we please call the roll for absent members?
Redner 1
Alright. That item is approved, five to zero. And the next items are items four through seven, floor acknowledgments. Can we please call the roll for absent members? Jones?
Redner 4
Can I have the vice chair's vote on that? Is it all aye? Aye. Aye. Everything?
Redner 1
Five to zero. Alright. That item is approved five to zero. So with that, we have concluded our hearing for, senate rules today.
Stellen Sie eine Frage zu diesem Video – ich analysiere das Transkript, um Ihnen zu antworten.