State Auditor praises BSCC work on Realignment

The California State Auditor says that the Board of State and Community Corrections’ work on Realignment means the public safety overhaul no longer is a “high-risk issue.” In the report released April 21, 2015, the state auditor said that the BSCC has made “significant efforts to gather information on realignment programs and practices that counties can use to inform their decisions related to criminal justice.” In 2011 Public Safety Realignment shifted responsibility of low-level offenders from the state prison system to county jails, where offenders could get rehabilitative programming and remain closer to families and support systems. In 2013 the auditor warned that Realignment had the potential to place the state budget a risk because of a lack of meaningful data to evaluate its impact. In making its decision the auditor cited the Board’s recent work in publishing a definition of “recidivism,” of identifying and making available criminal justice performance metrics that can help counties measure outcomes of local public safety policy decisions, and in improving the gathering of data from counties for the annual report on statewide Realignment implementation plans. Kathleen Howard, executive director of the three-year-old agency, said that the removal of the “high-risk” designation is “a reflection of the progress the BSCC has made in carrying out its responsibilities.” For more information contact Tracie Cone at 916-322-1054 or tracie.cone@bscc.ca.gov http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2015-609and2015-610.pdf