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Receive Staff Report and Discuss Second Chance Program - AB1056 (2015/2016): The Safe Neighborhoods and School Act. The BSCC has been working on the implementation of AB 1056. Below is a brief update on the process.
1.) BSCC Executive Steering Committee (ESC) is being finalized. This committee will be charged with specified tasks, including the development of Requests for Proposals to seek applications for grant funds. ESCs submit findings and grant award recommendations to the BSCC Board for final disposition.
2.) Tentative timeline of RFP Release Fall 2016
3.) Tentative timeline of RFP Award Spring 2017
4.) Any Public Agency - lead applicant
5.) BSCC will be hosting a regional meeting in Sacramento around May or June 2016
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On January 7, 2016 the Governor’s Budget included an estimate of state’s first-year savings resulting from the implementation of Proposition 47 at $29.3 million. Sixty-five percent of that (just over $19 million) will be allocated to the BSCC to be distributed as recidivism-reduction grants. After the first year, implementation costs, such as the court hearings associated with Prop. 47 sentence reductions, will decrease, and the amount that will go in to the recidivism-reduction grants administered by BSCC will increase. The Governor’s Budget includes additional estimates:
- Second year savings to BSCC: $26.3 million
- Ongoing savings to BSCC: $37.4 million annually
Assembly Bill No. 1056, Chapter 438 (2015/2016) partial Legislative Counsel's Digest
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1056
This bill would also require the board to administer a competitive grant program that focuses on community-based solutions for reducing recidivism. The bill would establish minimum criteria for the grant program and would require the board to establish an executive steering committee, as specified, to make recommendations regarding the design, efficacy, and viability of proposals and to make recommendations on guidelines for the submission of proposals for the grant program, including threshold or scoring criteria, or both. Among other things, the bill would require those guidelines to prioritize proposals that advance principles of restorative justice while demonstrating a capacity to reduce recidivism, and that leverage certain other federal, state, and local funds or social investments. The bill would define recidivism, for the purposes of these provisions, as a conviction of a new felony or misdemeanor committed within 3 years of release from custody or committed within 3 years of placement on supervision for a previous criminal conviction.
(2) The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act establishes within the State Treasury the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund to receive moneys transferred from the General Fund in an amount equal to the savings resulting from the implementation of the act, as specified. The act requires that 65% of the moneys in the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund be allocated the Board of State and Community Corrections to administer a grant program to public agencies aimed at supporting specified types of programs, including diversion programs, for people in the criminal justice system with an emphasis on programs that reduce recidivism, as specified.
This bill would create the Second Chance Fund in the State Treasury for the purpose of funding the above-described recidivism reduction program. The bill would require the Controller, upon order of the Director of Finance, to transfer the moneys available to the Board of State and Community Corrections from the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund into the Second Chance Fund. The bill would also authorize the Second Chance Fund to receive moneys from any other federal, state, or local grant, or from any private donation. The bill would prohibit the board from using the moneys in the fund to supplant existing programs and from spending more than 5% per year of the total moneys in the fund for administrative purposes.
The bill would require the board to administer these provisions, and moneys in the fund would be continuously appropriated to the board for expenditure for these purposes. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.