Report 2016-131 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2016-131: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: It Must Increase Its Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Inmate Suicides (Release Date: August 2017)

Recommendation #5 To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To minimize the number of inmates who spend more than 24 hours in alternative housing, Corrections should use the audit process it is developing to monitor the amount of time inmates spend in alternative housing and annually reassess its need for additional crisis beds.

60-Day Agency Response

Monitoring is occurring to provide oversight regarding the amount of time inmates spend in alternative housing. Legislative approval has been granted to add 100 new Mental Health Crisis Beds.

See attached approval of crisis bed construction and copies of monitoring reports of alternative housing usage.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

As we note in the audit report on page 30, the Legislature approved the construction of 100 new crisis beds. According to Corrections, its monitoring report allows it to see the percentage of inmates transferred out of alternative housing to a crisis bed within 24 hours Corrections-wide as well as by facility. Although this is not part of the audit process we describe in the report on page 53, Corrections stated headquarters reviews these reports on a monthly basis. While we consider this recommendation fully implemented, we encourage Corrections to continue to monitor and reassess the need for additional crisis beds if it continues to face challenges ensuring that inmates spend less than 24 hours in alternative housing before admission to a crisis bed.

All Recommendations in 2016-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.