CDCR did not provide a timely fiscal analysis to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, but in correspondence with legislators it made the following claims:
“CDCR estimates the fiscal impact of AB 2632 (Holden) to potentially be high hundreds of millions up to billions of dollars in cost…Based on the requirements in the bill for out-of-cell programming, which includes recreation time, the department estimated it would need to increase the space for exercise yards by approximately 50% and double the space for programming.
The Department estimates that to double the programming space at each institution would have a one-time fiscal impact of $775M, and to expand exercise yards would have a one-time fiscal impact of $256M-$512M…
At a minimum, the Department estimates an increase in custody staffing required to effectively implement the bill at $6.5M at each institution. Across the 31 institutions, this would total approximately $200M in ongoing cost. The Department also estimates significant, but unknown, costs associated with litigation.”
The cost estimate provided by CDCR cannot withstand a review of the facts. As detailed below, CDCR has demonstrated its capacity to transition SHU and other secure housing units effectively, in a manner that leads to substantial overall savings. CDCR began this process in 2016, and has already implemented significant changes at facilities like Pelican Bay State Prison to accommodate reduced use of solitary confinement and increased programming. According to the Governor’s budget and the LAO, these transitions have SAVED the state tens of millions of dollars. The record shows that converting space from solitary saves money, and creates space that can be repurposed.