State’s Corrections and Rehab Agency Among Nation's Largest

Editor’s note: Following is one in an ongoing series of profiles of the largest California state government agencies.

 

The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation is the third-largest law enforcement agency in the United States, with 24,000 correctional officers, 1,800 state parole agents and 600 criminal investigators/special agents (as of 2013). The CDCR has an annual budget upwards of $11 billion, with more than $358 million dedicated to IT.

 

The vision of CDCR is to protect the public from crime and victimization. The mission is to enhance public safety through safe and secure incarceration of offenders, effective parole supervision, and rehabilitative strategies to successfully reintegrate offenders into communities. The core values of the CDCR are service, leadership, integrity, accountability, respect, trust and collaboration.

 

Of the CDCR’s $11.3 billion budget, $11 billion is from the General Fund and $307 million is from other funds.

In 2006, the CDCR was hit with two lawsuits due to overcrowding in California’s prisons, which affected medical care and mental health services. A court ruled that the prisons had to reduce the population to 137.5 percent of capacity, which was finally achieved in December 2015. If the Department fails to maintain this benchmark of 137.5 percent of capacity, the court has required it to:

• Increase prospective credit earnings for nonviolent second-strike inmates as well as minimum-custody inmates
• Allow nonviolent second-strike inmates who have reached 50 percent of their total sentence to be referred to the Board of Parole Hearings for parole consideration
• Parole inmates who have been granted release by the Board of Parole Hearings but have future parole dates
• Expand the department’s medical parole program
• Establish an elderly parole program
• Increase its use of re-entry services and alternative-custody programs

The future organizational goals are:

• Workforce excellence – Ensure a well-trained, high-quality workforce.
• Technology – Develop an information technology strategy and implement systems capable of managing current needs and anticipated growth.
• Risk Management/Organizational Effectiveness – Achieve organizational excellence in our operations and systems.
• Legal Compliance – Develop preventive strategies to preclude class-action suits and remedy identified violations.

The program’s goals are:

• Crime Prevention and Safety – Develop a comprehensive crime prevention program and establish evidence-based research to determine the impact of offender programs within the institutions and community to reduce criminality and victimization.
• Outreach, Partnerships, and Transparency – Seek out partnerships and develop meaningful programs and processes to promote shared responsibility for community safety.

Health Care Delivery – Ensure an organization design and accompanying systems to provide efficient delivery of quality health care. Five California institutions are running a pilot program to make tablets purchasable through the facility canteen. High Desert State Prison is just beginning to offer tablets, and 400 inmates have begun using them at Kern Valley State Prison since May 23. The other three are set to roll out through June and July.

 

 

 

Secretary:

            Scott Kernan – Kernan was appointed as secretary of the Department of Correction & Rehabilitation in December 2015. He started as a correctional officer in a prison in 1983 and worked his way up through the ranks until he served as warden at Mule Creek State Prison from 2003 to 2004 and at California State Prison, Sacramento, from 2004 to 2006. He then worked in a couple of positions in the CDCR before becoming undersecretary from 2008-2011 and again for nine months before being named secretary.

            Contact Info:  scott.kernan@cdcr.ca.gov

                                    916-324-7308

Undersecretary for Operations:

            Ralph Diaz – Diaz was appointed in April 2016. He had served as deputy director of facility operations since 2014 and was associate director of high-security institutions from 2013 to 2014 in the CDCR. He also served in several positions at the California Substance Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran from 2000-2013, including warden, acting warden, chief deputy administrator, captain and counselor supervisor.

            Contact Info:  ralph.diaz@cdcr.ca.gov

Undersecretary of Administration and Offender Services:

            Kenneth Pogue – He was appointed in July 2015. He has served in the CDCR as assistant secretary in the Office of Legislation since 2013 and in the state Attorney General’s Office from 1999 to 2013.

Contact Info:  kenneth.pogue@cdcr.ca.gov

Director of the Division of Enterprise Information Services:

            Russ Nichols – Nichols was appointed in March 2015 after holding the position in an acting capacity for a few months. He was also a project director of the Strategic Management System from 2012-14 in the CDCR and a data processing manager in several California government agencies since 1990, including the Office of Correctional Health Care Services, the California State Controller’s Office, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Employment Development Department.

            Contact Info:  russ.nichols@cdcr.ca.gov

                                    916-358-2438