Report 2011-129 Recommendations and Responses in 2013-041
Report 2011-129: Juvenile Justice Realignment: Limited Information Prevents a Meaningful Assessment of Realignment's Effectiveness
| Department | Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented | Total Recommendations to Department | Not Implemented After One Year | Not Implemented as of 2012-041 Response | Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board of State and Community Corrections | 1 | 8 | 8 | n/a | 8 |
| Department of Justice | 1 | 3 | 2 | n/a | 2 |
Recommendation To: Justice, Department of
To ensure the accuracy and completeness of the data the counties submit into the Juvenile Court and Probation Statistical System (JCPSS), Justice should follow its procedure to send annual summaries of the JCPSS data to the counties for review and to conduct occasional field audits of the counties' records.
Response
DOJ will continue to provide annual summary JCPSS data to counties in March of each year for their review and to obtain confirmation from each county that the summary accurately reflects the data submitted by that county for the year. If a county does not agree with the summary data provided by DOJ, the county corrects the data and resubmits it with a written confirmation.
Summaries for the calendar year 2012 data were sent out on March 19, 2013, and responses from all 56 counties participating in JCPSS affirmed their data by mid-April 2013. (Del Norte and Humboldt Counties do not submit data to JCPSS.)
Starting in January 2014, the DOJ will conduct semi-annual field audits of probation departments. DOJ staff will analyze data submitted by counties to assess the quality and completeness of the data. The analysis will be reviewed by supervisory/management staff, who will determine which counties will be audited. In addition, the DOJ will reach out to the training committee of the Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC) to obtain assistance in auditing juvenile probation information and to identify areas of training that DOJ can provide to CPOC to further ensure integrity in the data.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: January 2014
- Response Date: November 2013
Recommendation To: Justice, Department of
To ensure that its criminal history system contains complete and accurate data related to juvenile offenders, Justice should implement a procedure similar to the one it employs for the JCPSS to verify the accuracy of information the counties submit.
Response
Starting in January 2014, on a semi-annual basis, the DOJ will pull 50 juvenile cycles from records in the Automated Criminal History System (ACHS) for supervisory review against the source documents from submitting agencies. Any discrepancies identified between the source document and the ACHS entry will be reconciled to ensure the ACHS data is accurate.
Additionally, the DOJ will pull data from ACHS by county for records containing juvenile dates of birth to determine the number of juvenile submissions on a semi-annual basis. For agencies showing a decline in the number of submissions, DOJ will contact those agencies to identify the cause of the decline and to provide training as needed to ensure accurate submission of juvenile data.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: January 2014
- Response Date: November 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To improve the usefulness of its reports so that they can be used to assess the outcomes of realignment, the board should work with counties and relevant stakeholders, such as the committee that established performance outcome measures for the block grant, to determine the data that counties should report. To minimize the potential for creating a state mandate, the board should take into consideration the information that counties already collect to satisfy requirements for other grants.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To improve the usefulness of its reports so that they can be used to assess the outcomes of realignment, if the Legislature chooses not to change the law as suggested, or if the counties are unable to report countywide statistics, the board should discontinue comparing outcomes for juveniles who receive block grant services to those who do not in its reports.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Will Not Implement
- Completion Date:
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To maximize the usefulness of the information it makes available to stakeholders and to increase accountability, the board should create policies and procedures that include clear, comprehensive guidance to counties about all aspects of performance outcome and expenditure reporting. At a minimum, such guidance should include specifying how counties should define when a juvenile has received a service and whether certain services, such as training, should qualify as serving juveniles.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To maximize the usefulness of the information it makes available to stakeholders and to increase accountability, the board should publish performance outcome and expenditure data for each county on its Web site and in its annual reports.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To maximize the usefulness of the information it makes available to stakeholders and to increase accountability, the board should consider verifying the counties' data by conducting regular site visits on a rotating basis or by employing other procedures to verify data that counties submit.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To increase the amount of juvenile justice data the counties make available to the public, the board should work with counties on how best to report these data.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To assist the Legislature in its effort to revise state law to specify the intended goals of juvenile justice realignment, the board should work with stakeholders to propose performance outcome goals to use to measure the success of realignment.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: State and Community Corrections, Board of
To ensure that counties do not maintain excessive balances of unexpended block grant funds, the board should develop procedures to monitor counties' unspent funds and follow up with them if the balances become unreasonable.
Response
Please refer to our one-year response.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Not Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2013