Condemned Inmate Transfer Program (CITP)
CDCR has filed Publication of Notice to Change to Regulations with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to make the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program (CITP) permanent.
The two-year pilot program was implemented from Jan. 29, 2020, through Jan. 29, 2022 and allowed death-sentenced individuals to serve their sentences in designated prisons that provide the necessary level of security and enable them to have more access to job opportunities, participate in rehabilitative programming and work opportunities commensurate with their case factors, and pay victim restitution in compliance with Proposition 66 passed by California voters in November 2016.
The regulations expand the CITP and make the transfers mandatory and permanent.
Transfers of death-sentenced individuals to other prisons allow CDCR to phase-out the practice of segregating people on death row based solely on their sentence and instead allow for case-by-case determinations of appropriate housing placements, such as behavior and other needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
This will begin the process of phasing out the segregation of death-sentenced people based solely on their sentence, and allow the department to house them centered on other factors. This is in line with CDCR’s behavior-based system where incarcerated people are housed according to their individual case factors.
The intent of the CITP is to allow death-sentenced people to serve their sentences in other prisons that provide the necessary level of security where they could have more access to job opportunities, and be able to pay victim restitution and participate in rehabilitative programs.
While no specific timeline has been finalized, CDCR anticipates the process will begin following approval of the proposed regulations adopting and making permanent the CITP.
Housing decisions will be based on several factors, but death-sentenced people will be assigned to facilities with the necessary security level, similar to people serving life without the possibility of parole.
CCWF’s condemned population will be integrated in different areas of that prison in accordance with individual case factors.
Any housing decision would be made according to state law, public safety, department rules and regulations, and the person’s specific case factors, including behavior and their risk to others.
CDCR has a classification process used to make housing determinations for all incarcerated people based on each person’s classification score and in accordance with their case factors, including security, medical, psychiatric, and program needs.
No. CDCR does not have the authority to resentence incarcerated people, and mainstreaming them will not change their sentence.
There will be a 45-day public comment period beginning on Jan. 20, 2023 through March 8, 2023. CDCR has scheduled a public hearing on March 8, 2023.
With a less restrictive housing assignment, death-sentenced people will have the opportunity to participate in work programs and potentially pay any restitution they have been ordered to pay by the courts.
The Office of Victim and Survivor Rights Services will work with San Quentin State Prison to conduct an initial outreach to registered victims to communicate the first movements. After that, all housing assignments for all incarcerated people are updated daily in CDCR’s Public Inmate Locator, which can be found on the CDCR website. Also, victims are encouraged to update their contact information and register for an email notification of prison transfer.
As of Jan. 11, 2023, there are currently 671 death-sentenced people in CDCR custody (650 males, 21 females). More information about capital punishment.
The state has not carried out an execution in 17 years. The last execution was that of Clarence Ray Allen held on Jan. 17, 2006.
No. Some states (including Virginia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Arizona) have ended the automatic segregation of people sentenced to death and mainstreamed them into the rest of the incarcerated population. Oregon closed its death row units in 2020 and integrated most of its capitally-sentenced prisoners into the general population.