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• cmichel
• 7 Sep
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The California State Auditor presents this audit report covering the operations of the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA). This report concludes that although one of its primary responsibilities is to offer inmates the opportunity to develop effective work habits and occupational skills, CALPIA cannot determine the impact it makes on post-release inmate employability because it lacks reliable data. Specifically, both CALPIA and a consultant it hired were unable to match the social security number of parolees from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (Corrections) Offender Based Information System to employment data from the Employment Development Department. We attempted to measure CALPIA’s impact using a different source­Corrections’ CalParole Tracking System­but could not because we found more than 33,000 instances of erroneous parolee employer information in this system. Our audit also revealed that while CALPIA created a set of comprehensive performance indicators for the entire organization, its opportunity to track its performance is limited because it only recently finalized a tracking matrix in March 2011. Moreover, several of these indicators are either vague or not measureable. Also, CALPIA could improve the accuracy of its annual reports to the Legislature. Although we found that the recidivism rate for parolees who worked for CALPIA were consistently lower than the rates of the general prison population, CALPIA overstated by $546,000 the savings it asserts result from the lower recidivism rate. Further, CALPIA did not acknowledge that factors other than participating in one of its work programs may have contributed to the lower recidivism rates among its parolees. CALPIA’s closure of more enterprise locations than it has opened has resulted in a decline of work opportunities for inmates. Since 2004 it has established two new enterprises and reactivated or expanded four others; however, during the same time period it closed, deactivated, or reduced the capacity of six other enterprises at 10 locations, resulting in a net loss of 441 inmate positions. Finally, although CALPIA’s five largest state agency customers paid more for certain CALPIA products, overall they saved an estimated $3.1 million during fiscal year 2009–10 when purchasing the 11 products and services evaluated. Full report:  CALPIA-Audit-Report-2010-118

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California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) – Report cites management’s need to improve data tracking to better substantiate lower…