A new board has been created to cope with the major changes in the future of California prisons.
Creation of the board is in response to last year’s U.S. Supreme Court order forcing California to reduce its overcrowded prison population.
The board will “provide the leadership needed to guide California toward a long-term, strategic, and successful implementation of a cost-effective, evidence-based community corrections system,” according to a report outlining the plan.
Gov. Jerry Brown created the Board of State and Community Corrections to replace the former Corrections Standards Authority. The new board, however, doesn’t look too different from the old board: five of the ten new appointments were members of the CSA, including Los Angeles Sheriff Leroy Baca, Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon, and Chief Probation Officer of Fresno County, Linda Penner.
Brown appointed Susan Mauriello, Santa Cruz County administrator and former member of the CSA, as director of the new board. Mauriello is known as an innovator in alternatives to incarceration, according to KPCC public radio. Santa Cruz is one of the counties that have most fully embraced prison realignment, KPCC reports.
The CSA made the following recommendations to the BSCC in a report titled Implementation Recommendations: Report to the Board of State and Community Corrections:
Create quality community-based services and strategies for juveniles and adults to achieve public safety by reducing the number of people that are incarcerated, reducing recidivism and reducing the overall long-term costs of the justice system.
Create a statewide repository for standardized outcome-based community corrections program data collection and reporting, including program descriptions, outcomes, evaluations, costs and cost effectiveness.
Encourage and support funding mechanisms and guidelines that create successful performance-based programs with accountability.
Develop a uniform risk and needs assessment approach for all communities.
Design and implement a sustainable financial and organizational structure, appropriate staffing and budget for the BSCC to assure the agency can meet its goals.
The report concludes: “The current effort represents the beginning of the sea (of) change that will reform California’s juvenile and adult correctional systems. It is not the end. There are still many interrelated and complex problems to be addressed. The newly created Board of State and Community Corrections is in a key position to implement the necessary changes to achieve the highest standards of public safety using cost effective, evidence-based methods at the community corrections level.”
