April 5, 2024, 10:00am
Annual Training June 21st
There will be no visiting on June 21st.
New 888 Form
Form was distributed for review. There are quite a few changes, however the focus is on the visitor being able to stop the searching process at any time during the process if that person so desires. If the person chooses to stop the process, the visitor cannot visit for just that day only. Official memo should be around the 18th of June.
California Model
There are 6 institutions to start and as CDCR learns, it will roll out to more institutions.
Why were they picked? There were criteria to follow, along with input from the Governor’s office. The entire prison should be involved in the change, not specific yards. Statewide asked to be a part of the process and were told at this time only 5 floor directors, Legislature and the governor’s office are heading this project thus far. There have been several trips to Norway by Wardens that are going to be involved, along with other higher ups. CDCR has reached out to some of the IFCs to gain input. Little is known as of now, and more information will be available soon. These institutions received more money for the purpose of the Model California. It took 20 years for Norway to achieve the status they are in today. The female prisons will be a little different from the men’s. Question from SIFC asking why CCPOA was not supporting the California Model. The answer is CCPOA is supportive of the California Model, because they realize the positive change that will hopefully happen.
New revised visiting application
CDCR is working with OCS, who is waiting for ISU to finish updating their manual and procedures, and once it is finished and is checked for any inconsistencies within the application, then open for public comment, and then it will roll out, possibly summer or early fall.
Increase of money in visiting/ATM cards/$5 bills
DOM update to reflect the increase in amount of money that can be brought into visiting. CDCR reached out to DOR to find out if visitors could bring in $5 bills & ATM cards, but as of right now not all vending machines have the card or large bill acceptance abilities. DOR is looking into it.
Scanning documents into SOMs
Visitors won’t need to carry the documents with them all the time, will roll out in July or August. Memos will be distributed to reflect the changes.
Increase of visitors
Lancaster reevaluated the capacity of visitor numbers and it was increased to 160.
EOP & Bifurcated programs update
High Desert and Corcoran have visits that are cut short due to the bifurcated visiting programs. Corcoran has a 4-day visiting program due to the bifurcated visiting.
Easter event
There were 29 institutions that had Easter programs for the visitors.
Follow-up on CDCR obtaining all local DOM supplements
Received from the institutions for comparisons. CDCR is currently reviewing them with the goal of streamlining and consistency.
Increase pay for incarcerated
The goal is to increase pay and less work hours for incarcerated people so they can attend more programing such as education, etc. Complaints that some institutions are cutting pay and not increasing, along with no new programs. New regs have just come out and there should be more programs coming soon for the split programs.
Transfers for specific programs
If an incarcerated person wants to get into a specific program, and that program is in another facility, how does he go about doing this? He can request and apply to the program, but also request at their annual to put in for a transfer.
Counselors
Is it possible that CDCR will open up the counselor positions to trained counselors and not just CO’s? Those positions can be held by trained counselors, but anyone hired in that capacity will first go through the academy.
SIFC Wish List
- Can guys get belts for their pants? Maybe ones with Velcro? It is in conversation, and it is being investigated.
- Can the guys wear their newly purchased jeans while visiting? It is being looked at. NOTE: The firehouses do issue jeans and can wear them into the visiting room because they are state issued.
- Can the incarcerated get calendar/planners/journals from Amazon? Some prisons are being told the incarcerated can only get them through canteen when they are not available through canteen. CDCR will investigate this.
- Family visit pictures, can that be vetted and be consistent with the rest of the state? This is being looked into.
- Can all facilities get rabbit costumes, etc. for holidays? CCPOA is against it for security reasons. CDCR is working on it. NOTE: If a supervisor does it, CCPOA is not affected.
California Model & Non-designated institutions
The NDIs are CDCR’s integrating facilities. California Model is a different mindset, to create an atmosphere more normal to what life is outside of the prisons.
Bad foods
Statewide complaints concerning the food quality for the population. SIFC will chart the complaints with details for CDCR. CDCR will send out a survey to the institutions and IACs to gather information on what types of foods they would like. SIFC would like to see more locally grown foods be used to feed the incarcerated.
SIFC request information about the medical health care paraprofessional work force
CCHCS program, Pilot at some prisons, including Mule creek. Covers suicide prevention, CPR training and administrating Narcan. CDCR will look for the information for SIFC.
Showing identification to visit
Some institutions are turning away visitors if they come to visit with an approved ID other than the original ID they first applied to visit. This will be corrected. Visitors can visit with other approved IDs, even if it is different from the ID used while applying to visit.
New application to visit
The new application will go into effect this summer. The new applications will no longer ask for specific crimes to be listed, only if you have a felony or open cases. Also new is the scanning of documents so you won’t have to keep carrying around your private sensitive information. Those documents will be scanned into SOMs.