Report 2009-107.1 Recommendations and Responses in 2015-041

Report 2009-107.1: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: It Fails to Track and Use Data That Would Allow It to More Effectively Monitor and Manage Its Operations

Department Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented Total Recommendations to Department Not Implemented After One Year Not Implemented as of 2014-041 Response Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 6 9 8 4 4

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To help it assess the effect of policy changes and manage operations in a cost-effective manner, Corrections should do the following:
• Ensure that its new data system will address its current lack of data available for statewide analysis, specifically data related to identifying the custody staffing cost by inmate characteristics such as security level, age, and custody designation.
• If implementation of its new system continues to be delayed, or if Corrections determines that the new system will not effectively replace the current assignment and scheduling systems used by the institutions, it should improve its existing data related to custody staffing levels and use the data to identify the related costs of various inmate populations.

Response

BIS Status: The Training and Events module was successfully deployed out to the entire Department in December 2014. The full implementation of BIS provides the Departmental cost information to operate an institution.

SOMS Status: The Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS) provides the inmate population data to include intake, scheduling, and movements. SOMS dependent data has been available since the functional deployments of the previous two years. There is no more action for the SOMS team to take in this action plan.

The statistical analytical tool with business intelligent reporting enables the Department to conduct correlative analysis of the data contained within the BIS and SOMS applications.

Deployment of the Request for Personnel Action module was completed to all programs within CDCR in March 2015. This provides a paperless process for creation, review and approval of personnel actions. Functionality allows better tracking and more efficient routing of actions as well as increased accuracy of position and cost control.

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To more closely align its operations with state law and its own policy, make certain that inmates are provided with an adequate level of supervision, and protect the health and safety of employees and inmates, Corrections should encourage the Department of Personnel Administration to negotiate a reduction in the amount of voluntary overtime a correctional officer is allowed to work in future collective bargaining unit agreements, in order to reduce the likelihood that involuntary overtime will cause them to work more than 80 hours of overtime in total during a month.

Response

The California Department of Human Resources has reached an understanding on voluntary overtime that will go into effect if a full agreement is made on the successor MOU for BU 6. In addition, the following should reduce the possibility of Correctional Officers (COs) exceeding the 80 hours of overtime in the control period: (a) the amount of CO vacancies has greatly diminished since 2009, therefore, the amount of overtime (voluntary and involuntary) has significantly diminished, (b) on July 27, 2015, CDCR reduced the CO Academy from 16 weeks to 12 weeks, increasing its ability to fill vacancies more quickly, (c) as of July 2015, CDCR had 1,276 CO candidates available to begin future CO Academies. The current vacancy rate for COs, statewide is at 4 percent. Institutions with a higher percentage of vacancies continue to receive COs from the Academy each month. By February 2016, CDCR anticipates the average statewide vacancy rate should be less than 1 percent.

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To more closely align its operations with state law and its own policy, make certain that inmates are provided with an adequate level of supervision, and protect the health and safety of employees and inmates, Corrections should better ensure that it prevents the instances in which correctional officers work beyond the voluntary overtime limit in a pay period.

Response

As stated in recommendation five, the California Department of Human Resources has reached an understanding on voluntary overtime that will go into effect if a full agreement is made on the successor MOU for BU 6. In addition, the following should reduce the possibility of Correctional Officers (COs) exceeding the 80 hours of overtime in the control period: (a) the amount of CO vacancies has greatly diminished since 2009, therefore, the amount of overtime (voluntary and involuntary) has significantly diminished, (b) on July 27, 2015, CDCR reduced the CO Academy from 16 weeks to 12 weeks, increasing its ability to fill vacancies more quickly, (c) as of July 2015, CDCR had 1,276 CO candidates available to begin future CO Academies. The current vacancy rate for COs, statewide is at 4 percent. Institutions with a higher percentage of vacancies continue to receive COs from the Academy each month. By February 2016, CDCR anticipates the average statewide vacancy rate should be less than 1 percent.

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To ensure that it can determine whether it is in compliance with state law and can measure the efficacy of its programs in reducing recidivism, Corrections should track, maintain, and use historical program assignment and waiting list data by inmate.

Response

BIS Status: The Budget Forecasting Function module has been fully deployed which allows program areas to identify real time personnel costs along with forecast projections throughout the Fiscal Year.

SOMS Status: SOMS dependent data has begun to be available since the functional deployment of the Programs module in March 2014. There is no more action for the SOMS team to take in this action plan. Departmental use of the Programs module allows trend data to be created over time.

Current Status of Recommendations

All Recommendations in 2015-041