Supervised Population Workforce Training Grant Program.

Existing law defines probation to mean the suspension of the imposition or execution of a sentence of an individual convicted of a crime and the order of his or her conditional and revocable release in the community under the supervision of a probation officer. Existing law authorizes probation for some, but not all, felony convictions. Existing law requires all eligible people released from prison on and after October 1, 2011, or, whose sentences have been deemed served, as provided, after serving a prison term for a felony, upon release from prison, and for a period not exceeding 3 years immediately following release, to be subject to postrelease community supervision provided by a county agency designated by each county's board of supervisors that is consistent with evidence-based practices, including, but not limited to, supervision policies, procedures, programs, and practices demonstrated by scientific research to reduce recidivism among individuals under postrelease supervision. Existing law authorizes a court, when sentencing a person to county jail for a felony, to commit the person to county jail for either the full term in custody, as specified, or to suspend the execution of a concluding portion of the term selected at the court's discretion. Under existing law, this period of suspended execution is supervised by the county probation officer and is known as mandatory supervision. This bill, until January 1, 2021, would establish the Supervised Population Workforce Training Grant Program to be administered, as provided, by the California Workforce Investment Board and funded, upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would provide grant program eligibility criteria for counties and provide that eligible uses for grant funds include, but are not limited to, vocational training, stipends for trainees, and apprenticeship opportunities for the supervised population, which would include individuals on probation, mandatory supervision, and postrelease community supervision. By January 1, 2018, the board would be required to submit a report to the Legislature containing specified information, including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the grant program.