Prisons: bed thresholds.

Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce the population of private in-state male contract correctional facilities. Existing law requires the department, to the extent that the adult offender population continues to decline, to reduce the capacity of state-owned and state-operated prisons or in-state leased or contract correctional facilities. In reducing prison capacity, existing law requires the department to take into consideration, among other things, the cost to operate at the facility, the impact on its workforce, and public safety and rehabilitation. This bill would require the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to ensure that state prisons maintain average daily empty bed thresholds, as specified. The bill would require the secretary, no later than April 1 of every year, to report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee specified information, including, among other things, whether the department exceeded the specified thresholds for the current fiscal year. The bill would make related findings and declarations.