(a) The Inspector General shall be responsible for contemporaneous oversight of internal affairs investigations and the disciplinary process of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, pursuant to Section 6133 under policies to be developed by the Inspector General.
(b) When requested by the Governor, the Senate Committee on Rules, or the Speaker of the Assembly, the Inspector General shall review policies, practices, and procedures of the department. The Inspector General, under policies developed by the Inspector General, may recommend that the Governor, the Senate Committee on Rules, or the Speaker of the Assembly request a review of a specific departmental policy, practice, or procedure that raises a significant correctional issue relevant to the effectiveness of the department. When exigent circumstances of unsafe or life threatening situations arise involving inmates, wards, parolees, or staff, the Inspector General may, by whatever means is most expeditious, notify the Governor, Senate Committee on Rules, or the Speaker of the Assembly.
(c) (1) Upon completion of a review, the Inspector General shall prepare a complete written report, which shall be held as confidential and disclosed in confidence, along with all underlying materials the Inspector General deems appropriate, to the requesting entity in subdivision (b) and the appropriate law enforcement agency.
(2) The Inspector General shall also prepare a public report. When necessary, the public report shall differ from the complete written report in the respect that the Inspector General shall have the discretion to redact or otherwise protect the names of individuals, specific locations, or other facts that, if not redacted, might hinder prosecution related to the review, or where disclosure of the information is otherwise prohibited by law, and to decline to produce any of the underlying materials. Copies of public reports shall be posted on the Office of the Inspector General’s Internet Web site.
(d) The Inspector General shall, during the course of a review, identify areas of full and partial compliance, or noncompliance, with departmental policies and procedures, specify deficiencies in the completion and documentation of processes, and recommend corrective actions, including, but not limited to, additional training, additional policies, or changes in policy, as well as any other findings or recommendations that the Inspector General deems appropriate.
(e) The Inspector General, pursuant to Section 6126.6, shall review the Governor’s candidates for appointment to serve as warden for the state’s adult correctional institutions and as superintendents for the state’s juvenile facilities.
(f) The Inspector General shall conduct an objective, clinically appropriate, and metric-oriented medical inspection program to periodically review delivery of medical care at each state prison.
(g) The Inspector General shall conduct an objective, metric-oriented oversight and inspection program to periodically review delivery of the reforms identified in the document released by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in April 2012, entitled The Future of California Corrections: A Blueprint to Save Billions of Dollars, End Federal Court Oversight, and Improve the Prison System (the blueprint), including, but not limited to, the following specific goals and reforms described by the blueprint:
(1) Whether the department has increased the percentage of inmates served in rehabilitative programs to 70 percent of the department’s target population prior to their release.
(2) The establishment of an adherence to the standardized staffing model at each institution.
(3) The establishment of an adherence to the new inmate classification score system.
(4) The establishment of and adherence to the new prison gang management system, including changes to the department’s current policies for identifying prison-based gang members and associates and the use and conditions associated with the department’s security housing units.
(5) The implementation of and adherence to the Comprehensive Housing Plan described in the blueprint.
(h) The Inspector General shall, in consultation with the Department of Finance, develop a methodology for producing a workload budget to be used for annually adjusting the budget of the Office of the Inspector General, beginning with the budget for the 2005–06 fiscal year.
(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 30, Sec. 7. (SB 74) Effective June 27, 2013.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018