Report 2015-504 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2015-504: Follow-Up—California Department of Justice: Delays in Fully Implementing Recommendations Prevent It From Accurately and Promptly Identifying All Armed Persons With Mental Illness, Resulting in Continued Risk to Public Safety (Release Date: July 2015)

Recommendation #4 To: Justice, Department of

To fully implement our previous recommendation and ensure that it keeps an updated accurate list of all mental health facilities, by July 2015 Justice should implement supervisory review of its analyst's comparison of Justice's mental health facilities list and Health Care Services' list to ensure staff identified and corrected all discrepancies.

60-Day Agency Response

The Department is working with the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to receive a list of all mental health facilities on a monthly basis. The Department reviews and compares its list against the list received from DHCS. If discrepancies are found, the Department works with DHCS to resolve them. The manager over the Mental Health Unit completes a high-level review each month and notes any concerns on the list for the analyst to address.

DHCS stated they will continue to update their website on a quarterly basis. The Department is comparing its list with the website list each quarter and noting any discrepancies. A new procedure has been added to forward the list to the unit's manager for a thorough supervisory review to ensure staff have identified and corrected all discrepancies. The manager will make any necessary notations on the spreadsheet for the analyst to explain or correct. In addition, the manager will sign and date the bottom of each page to acknowledge that the supervisory review has been completed. The Department will continue to work with DHCS to resolve any discrepancies.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

We reviewed documentation provided by Justice supporting its statements and confirmed that is has fully implemented this recommendation.

All Recommendations in 2015-504

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.