August 17, 2017 2016-131
The Governor of California
President pro Tempore of the Senate
Speaker of the Assembly
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 95814
Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:
As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report concerning the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (Corrections) policies, procedures and practices for suicide prevention and reduction, with a particular emphasis on the recently elevated suicide rate at the California Institution for Women. Although female inmates account for about 4 percent of Corrections’ total inmate population, they accounted for 11 percent of inmate suicides from 2014 through 2016. This report concludes that Corrections should provide increased oversight and leadership to ensure that prisons follow its policies related to suicide prevention and response.
We identified significant weaknesses in prisons’ suicide prevention and response practices at the four prisons we reviewed. Specifically, we found that the prisons failed to complete some required evaluations to assess inmates’ risk for suicide and those that the prisons did complete were often inadequate. The inadequacies included leaving sections of the risk evaluations blank, failing to appropriately justify the determinations of risk, failing to develop adequate plans for treatment to reduce the inmates’ risk, and relying on inconsistent information about inmates to determine risk. Also, the prisons we reviewed did not properly monitor inmates who were at risk of committing suicide. For example, we found that staff were not staggering behavior checks or conducting checks in the required 15‑minute intervals. Finally, we found that some staff members at the prisons we visited had not completed required trainings related to suicide prevention and response. These conditions may have contributed to elevated suicide and attempted suicide rates at California prisons.
Corrections also lacks assurance that prisons are implementing its policies to address serious issues. For many years, a court-appointed special master, working with Corrections to address inmate mental health care, identified many of the same issues we discuss in this report. In 2013 Corrections began developing an audit process to review prisons’ compliance with its policies and procedures, including those it issued in response to the special master’s reports; however, that process is still in development. In addition, Corrections could provide additional leadership to prisons regarding the communication of best practices related to suicide prevention efforts. Finally, Corrections’ policies require it to complete a thorough review of a prison’s compliance with policies and procedures following an inmate’s suicide, but Corrections does not complete such reviews for suicide attempts. This hinders Corrections’ ability to identify problems with a prison’s compliance with crucial policies and procedures until after an inmate dies.
Respectfully submitted,
ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA
State Auditor