Position: CPOC endorses joint State and County efforts to address the following:

• The study and definition of State and/or Local responsibilities in the delivery of correctional services.
• The development of a statewide offender risk assessment classification system as the basis for cost effective resource allocation strategies and, subsequently;
• The development of statewide correctional program standards which will clearly define the crime reduction and client intervention roles needed to ensure community protection and provide cost effective correctional programs at both the state and local level.

Summary of Issue: The State legislature and the counties have expressed their growing concern regarding increased state and county costs associated with the provision of a wide range of human services programs including correctional programs. The increasing adult and juvenile offender population has each year required the expenditure of an increasing portion of state and local revenue, yet the community (through legislative mandate) continues to emphasize its concern for a safe community, while at the same time, generally opposing tax increases.

Demographic projections indicate that prison populations will begin to decline shortly after new prison construction is completed and nearly 90% of the offenders in California are already on probation and/or receiving services at the county level. At the same time, the revenue for the implementation of state and locally mandated correctional services is becoming increasingly limited and competition for available funding has increased. There is no stable funding base for the provision of quality correctional services nor statewide standards for their delivery.

Prior efforts to reduce or limited commitments have not successfully addressed public safety concerns and have not resulted in the development of standards for the delivery of a significant range of alternative services at the local level. Further, these efforts have resulted in no clear definition of incarceration and/or services levels appropriate for defined target populations and have failed to provide an equitable, cost-effective distribution of correctional resources on a statewide basis.