SB 14

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law, the Public Safety and Offender Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007, requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to design, construct, or renovate prison housing units, prison support buildings, and programming space in order to add approximately 7,484 beds at specified adult correctional facilities, and authorizes the department to develop approximately 12,000 new prison beds overall, including appropriate programming space, and to acquire land, design, construct, and renovate reentry program facilities, and to construct and establish new buildings at facilities under the jurisdiction of the department to provide medical, dental, and mental health treatment or housing for 6,000 inmates, as specified. This bill instead would remove the limitation on the number of beds that are required to be constructed at specified facilities, while maintaining the 12,000 bed maximum, and would delete the word "prison" from the types of facilities that are affected by the bill and replace it with "facilities under the jurisdiction of the department." Existing law authorizes the State Public Works Board to issue revenue bonds or notes for purposes of financing these projects, as specified. Existing law also provides that funds derived from interim financing, bonds, or notes issued for this purpose are continuously appropriated to the board on behalf of the department for purposes of specified prison construction. Existing law authorizes the board to borrow funds for project costs from the Pooled Money Investment Account. This bill would add acquisition and design as project costs for which the board may borrow funds from the Pooled Money Investment Account. The bill would also provide that preliminary expenditures to develop the scope, budget, programming, and scheduling for a project would be reimbursable from the proceeds of the revenue bonds. The board would be allowed to issue bonds or notes to finance the acquisition of specified projects. The amount of bonds or notes to be sold would be required to include the cost of acquisition of the facilities and other costs related to acquisition of the facilities. Because the bill would authorize additional uses of continuously appropriated funds, the bill would constitute an appropriation. Under existing law, the amount of revenue bonds or notes to be sold is required to equal certain costs, including interim financing and a reasonable reserve. This bill, instead, would authorize the amount of bonds and notes to include those items. Existing law provides that eligible counties that choose to finance a local youthful offender rehabilitative facility with money from this act are responsible for the acquisition, design, construction, staffing, operation, repair, and maintenance of those facilities. This bill would also require those counties to be responsible for the renovation of those facilities. The bill would make related conforming changes. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.