BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON Public Safety
Senator John Vasconcellos, Chair A
1999-2000 Regular Session B
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AB 1890 (Rod Pachaco) 0
As Amended May 26, 2000
Hearing date: June 13, 2000
Penal Code
SH:br
INMATES WORKING OUTSIDE PRISON GROUNDS
MANDATORY "DISTINCTIVE CLOTHING"
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: None
Support: California State Sheriff's Association; Sheriff,
Riverside County
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: Ayes 74 - Noes 0
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS BE STATUTORILY MANDATED TO
REQUIRE THAT PRISONERS WHO ARE WORKING OUTSIDE THE PRISON GROUNDS IN
ROAD CLEANUP CREWS OR FIRE CREWS WEAR DISTINCTIVE CLOTHING FOR
IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES, AS SPECIFIED?
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PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to require that the Department of
Corrections shall require prisoners who are working outside the
prison grounds in road cleanup crews or fire crews wear
distinctive clothing for identification purposes, as specified.
Existing law provides that the CDC shall require of every
able-bodied prisoner imprisoned in any state prison as many
hours of faithful labor in each day and every day during his or
her term of imprisonment as shall be prescribed by the rules and
regulations of the CDC Director. (Penal Code 2700.)
Existing law authorizes the Department of Transportation to
employ, or cause to employ, prisoners confined in the state
prisons in the improvement and maintenance of any state highway.
(Penal Code 2760.)
Existing law authorizes any department, division, bureau, or
other agency of the State of California to use convicts confined
in the state prisons to perform work necessary and proper to be
done by them at permanent, temporary, and mobile camps. (Penal
Code 2780.)
Existing law establishes the Prison Industry Authority for the
purpose of developing and operating industrial, agricultural,
and service enterprises employing prisoners in institutions
under the jurisdiction of CDC. (Penal Code 2800 and 2801.)
Existing law establishes within the CDC a joint-venture program
allowing private businesses to establish manufacturing and
service enterprises on prison property employing inmates
confined in the state prison. (Penal Code 2117.2.)
Existing law creates the California Conservation Camp program
that provides for the training and use of the inmates and wards
assigned to conservation camps in the furtherance of public
conservation. (Public Resource Code 4951 et seq.)
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Existing law establishes, under Director of Corrections, the
Sierra Conservation Center, the North Coast Conservation Center
and the Southern Conservation Center, referred collectively as
the "conservation centers." (Penal Code 6200-6208.)
Existing law provides that work of inmates assigned to the
conservation centers may be performed at the conservation
centers or branches thereof or in or from permanent, temporary,
and mobile camps. (Penal Code 6202.)
Existing law authorizes the Director to enter into contracts or
cooperative agreements with any public agency, local, state or
federal, for the performance of other conservation projects
which are appropriate for the public agencies under policies
established by the Prison Industry Authority. (Penal Code
6202.)
Existing law provides that inmates and wards may be assigned to
perform public conservation projects, including, but not limited
to, forest fire prevention and control, forest and watershed
management, recreational area development, fish and game
management, soil conservation, and forest watershed
revegetation. (Penal Code 6202.)
Existing law provides that any department, division, bureau,
commission or other agency of the State of California or the
Federal Government may use or cause to be used convicts confined
in the state prisons to perform work necessary and proper to be
done by them at permanent, temporary, and mobile camps, as
specified. (Penal Code 2780-2792.)
This bill requires that the Department of Corrections shall
require prisoners who are working outside the prison grounds in
road cleanup crews or fire crews to wear distinctive clothing
for identification purposes, as specified.
COMMENTS
1. Need for This Bill
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According to the author's statement in the Assembly analyses:
Recently, an inmate from the California Rehabilitation
Center, a medium-security facility in Norco, walked away
from a fire crew while assigned to clear away brush at
the California Citrus State Historic Park. The prisoner
later kidnapped a 16-year-old Riverside girl at gunpoint
and forced her to drive to Bakersfield where she finally
escaped.
It is the practice of the CDC to use prisoners to work on
fire crews. These crews are used throughout local
communities and are not staffed by correctional officers
nor armed custody staff. Additionally, prisoners on fire
crews are not required to wear distinctive clothing,
which serves to warn the public they are prisoners.
AB 1890 will require the CDC to provide all prisoners with
distinctive clothing while working off prison grounds.
This measure will assure protection of the public by
ensuring the identification of work crew prisoners.
2. Additional Background
The Assembly Committee on Public Safety analysis of this bill
contains the following additional background:
In March 2000, an inmate at the California Rehabilitation
Center at Norco, California, walked away from a fire crew
that was clearing brush at the California Citrus State
Historic Park. The inmate later kidnapped a 16-year-old
female and forced her to drive him to Bakersfield.
According to a Press-Enterprise Newspaper article dated
March 25, 2000, a California Department of Forestry (CDF)
fire captain was supervising the 18-member crew when the
inmate walked away. The inmate and other crew members were
wearing prison-issued denim shirts and pants.
The newspaper further reported that when inmates are
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working with city crews in Norco, they are required to wear
bright lime-green jump suits. Inmates who work with fire
crews are required to wear bright-orange jump suits when
they are on actual fire lines, but they are allowed to wear
their prison-issue denim shirt and pants when they perform
other duties. This bill requires that work and fire crews
wear distinctive clothing, and that adequate security be
provided to prevent escape.
3. Security at CDF Fire Camps
According to the Assembly Committee on Public Safety analysis of
this bill:
The CDC camp program is operated by the CDF. Inmates are
housed in dormitories in various camps throughout the
state. Those inmates in the firefighter program are
virtually all classified as Level 1, which is the lowest
level of security risk. During the non-fire season,
firefighter inmates perform community service projects such
as cleaning parks and re-roofing buildings. Correctional
officers are assigned to each camp, and there are two
correctional officers on duty each shift. Work details and
fire-lines are supervised by CDF personnel, who are trained
by the CDC to prevent "walkaways". CDF captains are
required to conduct inmate counts every half-hour.
According to CDC, there are approximately 4,000 inmates
assigned to camps. The cost of using correctional officers
to provide security on work details and fire-lines could be
enormous.
CDF captains are required to conduct inmate counts every
half-hour. Generally walkaways-or "escapes"-are not a serious
problem because (a) the inmates are low level security risks
with minimal time left to serve; and (b) most of the time the
crews are working in remote areas where there is nowhere to go
and few immediate temptations to stray. There were 15 walkaways
in 1999.
4. CDC Training Centers and Camps
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There are two conservation centers, the California Correctional
Center (CCC) in Lassen County and the Sierra Conservation Center
(SCC) in Tuolomne County, and 38 conservation camps located
throughout the state. The CDC jointly operates 33 conservation
camps with the California Department of Forestry (CDF), and an
additional 5 with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Only
minimum security inmates are considered for the camp program.
The total design bed capacity for the 38 camps is 3,908 inmates
and 182 authorized fire crews.
Of the three centers mentioned in statute, only the Sierra
Center actually exists. The CCC and the SCC are training
centers where inmates are medically cleared and reviewed by
classification committee staff. The inmates undergo physical
fitness preparation by CDC staff and after meeting CDC
standards, graduate to the CDF training. After 62 hours of CDF
training and meeting CDF standards, the inmates then move to one
of the 38 conservation camps.
The camps mission is "to provide the cooperative agencies with
an able-bodied, trained work force for fire suppression and
other emergencies such as floods and earthquakes. In addition,
fire crews work on conservation projects on public lands and
provide labor on local community services projects."
During the 1980's prison construction boom in California, many
of the conservation camps were built. Apparently, none have
been built in the 1990's.
5. Effect of This Bill
This bill applies the new statutory mandate for distinctive
clothing to inmates who are working outside the prison grounds
in road cleanup crews pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with
section 2760) or fire crews pursuant to Article 5 (commencing
with section 2780) to wear distinctive clothing for
identification purposes. It does appear that inmates may be
assigned to work off prison property in other circumstances.
However, any expansion of this bill beyond the two
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circumstances delineated would also entail additional costs.
For example, the Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis
projected that the cost for distinctive uniforms for each of
the 4,000 current conservation camp inmates-procured or
purchased by the CDC-would be $25 apiece, with a cost of
$225,000 for 9,000 units.
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