Report 2010-124 Recommendations and Responses in 2012-041

Report 2010-124: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: The Benefits of Its Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions Program Are Uncertain

Department Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented Total Recommendations to Department Not Implemented After One Year Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 1 7 5 5

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To ensure that the State does not spend additional resources on COMPAS while its usefulness is uncertain, Corrections should suspend its use of the COMPAS core and reentry assessments until it has issued regulations and updated its operations manual to define how Corrections' use of COMPAS will affect decision making regarding inmates, such as clarifying how COMPAS results will be considered when sending inmates to different prison facilities, enrolling them in rehabilitative programs to address their criminal risk factors, and developing expectations for those on parole.

Response

Partially Implemented:

Emergency regulations were filed with the Office of Administrative Law to promulgate the new section into California Code of Regulations, Title 15, § 3375.6, Automated Needs Assessment Tool, operative May 10, 2012. The emergency regulations were re-filed and operative on

October 17, 2012.

Plan for full implementation:

The CDCR is in negotiations with the COMPAS software developer to make necessary changes. Once the necessary software updates have been completed, the department will complete the process of revising the regulations and filing the revision in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act. Full regulatory requirements will be met no sooner than June 30, 2013.

Current Status:

Completion of the final regulatory requirements are on hold. Ongoing negotiations with the software vendor will define the scope and terms of the contract for necessary software changes to the COMPAS tool. Once completed, the CDCR will then be able to determine the time frame for completing the regulatory requirements based on the release of the updated software.

Upon completion of the Regulations, the new section of the Department Operations Manual

will be developed accordingly.

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To ensure that the State does not spend additional resources on COMPAS while its usefulness is uncertain, Corrections should suspend its use of the COMPAS core and reentry assessments until it has demonstrated to the Legislature that it has a plan to measure and report COMPAS's effect on reducing recidivism. Such a plan could consider whether inmates enrolled in a rehabilitative program based on a COMPAS assessment had lower recidivism rates than those provided rehabilitative programming as a result of non-COMPAS factors.

Response

CDCR's 2012 Outcome Evaluation Report included recidivism rates by COMPAS needs categories (pp. 52-54).

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

Once Corrections resumes its use of COMPAS core and reentry assessments, it should provide ongoing training to classification staff representatives, parole agents, and others that may administer or interpret COMPAS assessment results to ensure that COMPAS is a valuable inmate assessment and planning tool.

Response

CDCR is certainly in the process of developing a program placement model outlined in the “The Future of California Corrections, CDCR Blueprint,” that will include enhanced training and messaging to Classification Staff Representatives and staff within the institutions on the value and importance of the COMPAS assessment.

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

Once Corrections resumes its use of COMPAS core and reentry assessments, it should develop practices or procedures to periodically determine whether its staff are using COMPAS core or reentry assessments as intended. Such a process might include performing periodic site visits to corroborate that COMPAS is being used as required.

Response

The Department is currently developing a proposed site visit process that will include a review of the assessment process and a follow-up report that outlines any issues found during the visit. The Department has begun publishing a monthly report to Executive Staff ranking institutions by percentage of eligible offender assessments completed. The Department is expecting to make use of a variety of new utilization monitoring options which will become available in COMPAS version 8.

Recommendation To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

Once Corrections resumes its use of COMPAS core and reentry assessments, it should develop practices or procedures to periodically compare the demand for certain rehabilitative programs, as suggested by a COMPAS core assessment, to the existing capacity to treat such needs.

Response

COMPAS data was utilized in developing the CDCR Blueprint, which was approved by the Legislature in May 2012, to determine program capacity and location based on criminogenic need profiles, as well as other factors. The Department's goal is to provide programming to 70 percent of the target population prior to release. CDCR does not have resources to plan program space for all inmates with a need at any given period of time, but will ensure sufficient capacity is available within its resources based upon correlating inmate needs and their scheduled release. Annual assessments will be done to reevaluate during normal budget development processes.

Current Status of Recommendations

All Recommendations in 2012-041