Report 2016-131 Recommendation 21 Responses

Report 2016-131: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: It Must Increase Its Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Inmate Suicides (Release Date: August 2017)

Recommendation #21 To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To provide the public and relevant stakeholders with accurate information on suicides and suicide attempts in its prisons, Corrections should immediately require prison staff to work with mental health staff to reconcile any discrepancies on suicides and suicide attempts before submitting numbers to the COMPSTAT unit.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2019

Due to the volume of the response, updates will be submitted via email, including supporting documentation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Corrections provided a policy memo dated October 2019 that clarifies how Corrections will count and record incidents of suicide and suicide attempts. The memo addresses our recommendation; however, additional audit work would be necessary to ensure implementation of the new procedures.


1-Year Agency Response

CDCR will ensure that mental health data feeds into COMPSTAT with respect to suicides and attempts. COMPSTAT and Mental Health have developed a report to allow for this feed.

CDCR has set up a data conduit for de-identified suicide and suicide attempt data to be sent on a monthly basis to COMPSTAT from the healthcare data warehouse.

The process will be formalized in policy memoranda. A copy of memorandum outlining process will be provided once complete.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending


6-Month Agency Response

Mental Health and DAI met with COMPSTAT to ensure that mental health data feeds COMPSTAT with respect to suicides and attempts. COMPSTAT and Mental Health are working on the report to allow for this feed. The process will be formalized in policy memoranda.

A copy of memorandum outlining process will be provided once complete.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending


60-Day Agency Response

Mental Health and DAI met with COMPSTAT to ensure that mental health data feeds COMPSTAT with respect to suicides and attempts. COMPSTAT and Mental Health are working on the report to allow for this feed. The process will be formalized in policy memorandum.

A copy of memorandum outlining process will be provided once complete.

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


All Recommendations in 2016-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.