July 1, 2023

State Legislative Update

California is facing a budget deficit of more than 30 billion dollars, leading to many new bills being pulled from consideration, including more than half of the LARRP priority bills for this year, including both of our co-sponsored bills, AB 745 (Bryan), The Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program, and AB 974 (McKinnor), the Incarcerated Birth Certificate Waiver Bill.

With most of our original work sidelined this year, we are focusing on a number of new bills which aim to improve the contracting, grant-awarding, and payment process for nonprofits and other organizations which engage in business with the state of California. One such bill we are advocating for is AB 696 (Lowenthal) which would provide and accept electronic signatures transmission, and offer the option of payment by electronic funds. The bill would also prohibit a state agency that administers a grant or contract after 2025 from requiring an original print signature on a contract or grant document. By moving toward quicker and more reliable e-signatures, e-verification, and e-payments, CBO’s can spend time on what truly matters, delivering high quality services to the folks they serve. A full list of LARRP’s priority bills can be found here, and this document is regularly updated as bills move through the process.

County Budget Update

We also have many important updates from LA County, as budgetary conversations have been ongoing for the upcoming fiscal year. The LA County Board of Supervisors approved the 2023-24 recommended county budget last week, cementing county expenditures through June 2024. This budget includes a variety of positive reforms, along with shortcomings, for the justice-involved community and criminal legal system. Some highlights of the proposed budget include:

$692 million for the emergency response to the homelessness crisis in LA. This money would fund a 26-person staffing expansion within the CEO’s Homelessness Initiative, service expansions including mental health outreach, and encampment resolution efforts including housing programs (2023-2024 Recommended Budget Press Release, Board of Supervisors Budget Deliberations Meeting 6/26).

$288 million for Care First and Community Investment (CFCI) to rectify racism in the criminal legal system. The Board of Supervisors voted to dedicate 10% of the county’s locally generated unrestricted revenues every year to community investments and alternatives to incarceration by June of 2024, which became the CFCI fund (also known as Measure J) (Budget Fact Sheet).

$80 million for mental health treatment county jails. The majority of this money will support health services for incarcerated individuals through increased funding for Integrated Correctional Health Services (ICHS) (Budget Fact Sheet, Ellis Sheriff). The rest of this funding will go towards moving incarcerated individuals with serious mental health conditions into inpatient mental health facilities as opposed to traditional carceral facilities (Board of Supervisors Budget Deliberations Meeting 6/26, Ellis Sheriff).

Establishing the Office of Constitutional Policing (OCP) for increased accountability and investigations into gang presences within the sheriff’s department.

On the flip side of a few of these promising budget elements, some organizations argue that money could be better spent. For example, $187 million of the CFCI funds accumulated in the past few years have gone unspent, frustrating many justice advocates (Board of Supervisors Budget Deliberations Meeting 6/26). Additionally, although the creation of the OCP would create more law enforcement accountability, the proposed budget also allocates several billion dollars to the sheriff's department and expands the number of sheriff positions (Ellis Sheriff, Budget Fact Sheet). Many organizations advocating for criminal legal and policing reform oppose this decision, as these organizations believe this money could be better spent on violence prevention and public support efforts (Budget Fact Sheet).

An issue LARRP has been pushing for for many years, this year’s budget also did not include allocations to fund the additional beds needed to close Men’s Central Jail, which was supposed to close in March of this year, while devoting over $100 million to renovate and re-open the Los Padrinos juvenile facility (LA Times Editorial Board, Ellis Sheriff).

Major overhaul in the county Probation Department also influences the Board’s agenda. The Board just fired the 9th probation department head in 20 years and passed three motions to improve juvenile justice (Ellis Probation). These three motions are:

1. Reduce the number of teenagers in the Probation Department (Ellis Probation).
2. Find suitable housing for juveniles released from Division of Juvenile Justice facilities (Ellis Probation).
3. Further develop the Department of Youth Development, which could replace the Parole Department in the future (Ellis Probation).

The county will likely incur costs with these changes to juvenile justice, particularly in light of the state recently closing all youth prisons, transferring more responsibility for juvenile justice to counties (Rinker).

LA county is also reckoning with videos smuggled out of Men’s Central Jail showing violence unaddressed by guards and appalling conditions inside county jails. In the Board budgetary review meeting, moments of silence were had for individuals recently killed within LA county carceral facilities (Ellis Sheriff). Board members recognized unacceptable conditions within county facilities, and justice advocates can find both hope for progress and concern for inadequate action within the adopted budget.