California District Attorneys join quest for answers from Corrections Department
First, the assembly public safety chair agreed to include our questions in an audit request. Now, local district attorneys, viewers, and researchers are joining our efforts to get answers from the corrections department.
We recently reported that after a half-dozen years and hundreds of millions of tax dollars annually, we still don't know if our prison reform and rehabilitation laws are working because the state can't or won't provide crucial data.
The Placer County District Attorney's Office is citing our reports, publicly calling on lawmakers to audit the Department of Corrections, in an effort to get answers. Following Placer DA Morgan Gire's letter, the California District Attorney's Association (CDAA) sent its own letter to Assembly Public Safety Chair Reggie Jones-Sawyer stating:
"It is time to take a closer look at how criminal justice reforms have impacted the administration of CDCR and the safety of every Californian. We need a comprehensive audit of CDCR.
They are just the latest to add their questions for CDCR to our growing list.
"The public has a right to know what these people are doing to rehabilitate themselves," said Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig.
"They're doing it in secret because they don't want to be called out," said El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson.
Over the past year, we've conducted dozens of interviews with former inmates, crime victims, prosecutors, public defenders, lawmakers, researchers, and advocates for both prisoners and victims. Many, if not all of them, would also like the data and the answers we've been working to get.
"I wanted answers and they wouldn't answer my questions until you started asking questions," said Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire.
Gire cited our reporting in a letter to the California Public Safety Committee, requesting to participate in a forthcoming audit request of CDCR.
The letter also adds questions to our growing list.
"I need that data; the rest of the legislature needs that data," said Public Safety Committee chair Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
Jones-Sawyer agreed to include our unanswered questions in an audit request, along with relevant questions from our viewers.
Our recent reports revealed the state's public data on recidivism and prison rehabilitation programs is dated and incomplete, so it's not clear if the state's landmark prison reform laws are working the way voters intended.
The state has contracted with independent researchers to analyze the programs but even they're getting outdated data.
As we've previously reported, CDCR currently tracks three-year recidivism rates, so there is an inherent delay in the state's recidivism data. Many are calling for more frequent recidivism reports, in addition to the three-year standard, so policymakers don't have to wait to find out what's working and what's not.
Even the three-year reports provide little information about the impact of in-prison rehabilitation on recidivism. The reports don't include aggregate demographic programming data, that researchers want, to help identify who is participating in programming, who is most successful, and why.
"We don't, we don't know if they are working," said Heather Harris with the Public Policy Institute of California.
Harris says she has requested more current credit and programming data from 2022-23 but, so far, CDCR has not agreed to provide it. While the PPIC wouldn't be able to analyze three-year recidivism rates from the 2022-23 programming data yet, there is a lot they could learn about the evolution and effectiveness of CDCR programming.
Researchers, viewers, inmates, and district attorneys from across the region are now adding their questions to our list. Questions like:
- How long is the current waiting list to get into prison rehabilitation programs?
- What percentage of early release credits are actually "earned"?
- How many inmates are released on a transient status?
- How many paroled sex offenders actually went through treatment programs?
And out of the tens of thousands of felons who were released early and then rearrested, how many received any rehabilitation at all?
Jones-Sawyers' office told us they're planning to submit an audit request sometime this month.
Follow Our Continuing Coverage Here: Investigating Rehabilitation & Recidivism Data
Add your questions below and see the growing list here:
UPDATE:
In response to this reporting, CDCR provided the following statement: "CDCR is committed to providing all Californians with accurate recidivism data that is complete and has been thoroughly vetted and analyzed. Our 2017-18 report was published in a timely manner, following the national standard of reporting arrests, convictions and returns to prison on a three-year cycle."
This story was previously updated to note the additional letter from the CDAA and to reiterate the three-year recidivism data cycle that was detailed in several previous reports.