Prison inmate education.

(1) Existing law requires the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Chancellor of the California State University, the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to enter into interagency agreements in order to encourage greater involvement of educational institutions in planning and developing prison-based educational programs, and to appoint an advisory committee to accomplish various duties. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to appoint a Superintendent of Correctional Education to oversee all prison education programs. This bill, the Prison Education Reform Act, would instead require those officers to appoint members to the Correctional Education Committee. The bill would rename the position of the Superintendent of Correctional Education as the Deputy Director of Correctional Education, who would be required to perform specified duties in consultation with the committee, including the adoption and enforcement of all necessary rules and regulations for the management and operation of education programs within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, approval of education programs in correctional institutions, and the adoption of rules and regulations for the admission of inmate students to those education programs. (2) The bill would establish the Correctional Education Committee in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which would be composed of 15 members, as specified. The committee would be required to advise the Deputy Director of Correctional Education regarding various goals and objectives, including the development of a 5-year comprehensive plan for a unified correctional school system by June 1, 2012, and to submit a report to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2012, on specified matters relating to correctional education in this state.