#14

I believe that the CBL project had its good and bad moments. While i thought the CBL project would not go as I expected due to the fact that I could not talk to someone initially but I was able to get passed that road block. Then to have to come to another road block with confidentiality was also a headache but I got passed that as well. I feel like my CP gave me a much better understanding of the legal system and the small doubts I had prior about the legal system went away after interacting with my CP. I already knew terms for civil cases but to see how differently things are for criminal cases was an eye opener. Overall I would give this CBL project a B.

#13

My CP is involved with the governor based upon it is apart of the state government. The governor sits down every fiscal year and goes over their budget. The governor also has the power to appoint people to positions in my CP as well as removing them.

Blog #12

My CP has to provide constitutional mandate levels of care to the inmates.  Being a state agency, they must follow the law carefully because they are a reflection of the state. One problem can make the department as well as the state look very bad. In 2006, they were in a lot of trouble because they werent providing a constitutional level of health care to the inmates so the federal government had to place an organization to assist my CP with their problems. The state constitution is very clear as to what people are entitled to, I believe that my CP was wrong for not providing the people they interact with their basic rights as a citizen of California. It does not matter that they deal with criminals they are still people just like me and you.

Blog #10

My CP's funding comes directly from the state. It is hard to have a good amount of funding for my CP just like any other state department due to the fact that the State of California is really broke. Every year the governor sits down and goes over the budget. My CP does try and cut down costs by layoffs and other measures. Recently my CP has decided for next year to:



Reduce CDCR's annual budget by more than $1.5 billion upon full implementation, including $160 million dollars in savings from closing the California Rehabilitation Center;
Eliminate $4.1 billion in construction projects that are no longer needed because of population reductions;
Eliminate $2.2 billion annually that would have been spent had Realignment not been implemented;
Return all out-of-state inmates to California by 2016 to bring back jobs and manage offenders closer to home while saving millions in taxpayer dollars;
Satisfy the U.S. Supreme Court's order to lower the state's prison population;
Satisfy the federal courts that CDCR has achieved and maintained constitutional levels of medical, mental health and dental care to avoid costly oversight;
Incorporate a standardized staffing formula to better manage staff levels and cost;
Improve the classification system to provide proper inmate housing placement and reduce the reliance on costly high-security facilities.

Blog #7

CDCR has encountered problems just like any other large business in CA. Last year I was offered a position at CDCR as a student assistant. I did not take it because I decided to come to school here. :) But the recent budget cuts caused a lot of people to lose their jobs in CDCR and had other state agencies panicking that their agency could be next. When the state changes its policies that concerns CDCR it does affect them, until we can get our budget together as a state, there are going to be job cuts, prisons being over crowded and having to close and prisoners being released early because there is no room in the prisons.

Blog Topic #4

The CDCR takes public stands on issues that concern them which could be death penalty and prison health care. These are two issues that I have heard about in the recent years. Not everyone is for the death penalty and only one prison (San Quentin) does executions. As far as prison health care is concerned, there have been cases regarding the medical care in the prisons. It has been said that CA spends at least $10,000 per inmate on health care. I personally feel thats a problem if CA is so broke. Granted everyone should have a right to health care but there are people who are not in prison who have none.

Blog Topic #3

My CP and citizens interact on the basis if you are apart of the state prison system as an inmate or someone who has been paroled. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is one of the top 6 largest police agencies (31,000 officers). The inmates who are paroled are assigned parol officers in which they check in with on a regular basis. If citizens do not obey the law and do things that will send them to prison they have to interact with my CP or if citizens are victims of a crime in which the accuser is sent to prison they communicate with the office of victim services which is an office under CDCR.