Inmates: housing assignments.

Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to conduct assessments of all inmates regarding the inmate's history of substance abuse, medical and mental health, education, family background, criminal activity, service in the United States military, and social functioning for use in placing the inmate in programs that will aid in his or her reentry to society and that will most likely reduce the inmate's chances of reoffending. This bill would require the department, in making an initial inmate housing assignment, to consider whether the inmate is eligible for public mental health services due to a serious mental illness or whether the inmate currently is eligible for benefits under the federal Social Security Disability Insurance program due to a diagnosed mental illness.