This report evaluates the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s progress meeting the components of its 2012 Blueprint plan that it had not previously met—adhering to the standardized staffing model for education programs and increasing the total number of offenders served in rehabilitative programs. The report also evaluates various changes the department made following its 2016 Update to the Blueprint in rehabilitative program expansion, specialized housing, gang management, and population management.

This report addresses the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (the department) internal investigations and employee discipline cases that we monitored and closed between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2021. We concluded that the department’s performance in conducting internal investigations and handling employee discipline cases was overall poor in the 109 cases we monitored and closed during this time period. We assessed the department’s performance as satisfactory in 57 cases and poor in 52 cases. We also determined that the department’s delays in processing dismissal cases during this reporting period resulted in unnecessary costs to the department and taxpayers totaling $299,304; over the past two and one-half years, the department has unnecessarily paid approximately $1,314,489 in salary and benefits to its employees due to these delays.

The department initially dismissed a sergeant who allegedly communicated with an undercover detective posing as a 16-year-old female with the intent to commit sex acts with a minor. The department later settled the case, allowing the sergeant to resign in lieu of termination and agreeing to remove the disciplinary action from the sergeant’s personnel file. However, the department violated its policy when it failed to include a no-rehire clause prohibiting the sergeant from applying for or accepting employment with the department in the future. As a result, the sergeant is free to apply for and accept employment with any State agency, including the department. In the report, we identify significant concerns with the decision not to include the mandatory no-rehire language and recommend the department include these provisions in all future settlement agreements that permit an employee to resign in lieu of being dismissed from state service.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated persons at Avenal State Prison between June 2020 and November 2020. We rated the overall quality of health care provided at Avenal State Prison during this time period as adequate.

This report summarizes the work we performed in 2020 reviewing 1,131 use-of-force incidents that occurred at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (department) facilities. We concluded that the department’s performance was overall satisfactory. We assessed the department’s performance as superior in 8 incidents, satisfactory in 960 incidents, and poor in 1639 incidents. We issued four recommendations to address concerns we identified while assessing the incidents and the various phases of the use-of-force review process.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated persons at Folsom State Prison between April 2020 and September 2020. We rated the overall quality of health care provided at Folsom State Prison during this time period as adequate.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated persons at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi between May 2020 and October 2020. We rated the overall quality of health care provided at the California Correctional Institution during this time period as inadequate.