Report 2013-103 Recommendation 32 Responses

Report 2013-103: Armed Persons With Mental Illness: Insufficient Outreach From the Department of Justice and Poor Reporting From Superior Courts Limit the Identification of Armed Persons With Mental Illness (Release Date: October 2013)

Recommendation #32 To: Justice, Department of

To ensure that it retains appropriate records related to mental health firearms prohibitions, by March 31, 2014, Justice should review its record retention schedule for documents used by the mental health unit and adjust any retention periods it determines
are inappropriate. Justice should then ensure that its mental health unit follows its retention schedule.

1-Year Agency Response

The revised Record Retention Schedule was submitted to the Department's Division of Administrative Services on October 7, 2014 for routing to the Department of General Services (DGS) for approval. DGS approved the revised Record Retention Schedule on October 23, 2014. Staff continue to retain documents in accordance with the retention schedule.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented


6-Month Agency Response

The Department's revised record retention schedule has been drafted but needs to be forwarded to and approved by other governing agencies, including DGS.

In the mean time, the Mental Health Unit implemented requested revisions to the retention schedule to ensure documents are retained for the appropriate amount of time. A new filing system was implemented and unit staff was trained on the procedures and process for retaining documents in accordance with the retention schedule.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented


60-Day Agency Response

The Department is in the process of updating its record retention schedule and will provide training to ensure unit staff follow the retention schedule.

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


All Recommendations in 2013-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.