Publications

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated people at Sierra Conservation Center between March and August 2024. We rated the case review component of the overall health care quality inadequate and the compliance component of the overall health care quality inadequate.

This report summarizes the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s performance in conducting internal investigations and handling employee discipline cases we monitored and closed from January 1, 2025, through June 30, 2025. This report combines two reports we have historically issued as separate reports and covers all staff misconduct investigations we monitored regardless of the manner in which the allegations were reported – allegations the department’s hiring authorities referred for investigation and allegations incarcerated people raised via the grievance and appeal process. Of the 199 administrative disciplinary and criminal cases we monitored and closed, we rated the department’s overall performance adequate in 28 cases, improvement needed in 85 cases, and inadequate in 86 cases. Of the 89 staff misconduct complaint cases we monitored and closed, we rated the department’s overall performance adequate in 10 cases, improvement needed in 31 cases, and inadequate in 48 cases.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated people at Mule Creek State Prison between February and July 2024. We rated the case review component of the overall health care quality adequate and the compliance component of the overall health care quality adequate.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated people at California State Prison, Sacramento between December 2023 and May 2024. We rated the case review component of the overall health care quality inadequate and the compliance component of the overall health care quality inadequate.

In this audit, we assessed the department’s effectiveness in managing extreme temperatures that occur in California’s prisons. We reviewed departmental policies and procedures relative to the management of temperatures in prisons including the department’s heat plan, which requires prison staff to document temperatures in housing units daily to determine whether staff must take protective measures for incarcerated people taking medications that may make them sensitive to the heat and cause heat-related illnesses, including death. We also examined some contributing factors impacting the prisons’ ability to maintain temperatures in housing units within the departmental guidelines, such as aging heating and cooling systems and maintenance challenges.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated people at Pleasant Valley State Prison between January 2024 to June 2024. We rated the case review component of the overall health care quality at PVSP adequate, and the compliance component of the overall health care quality at PVSP adequate.

This report contains our assessment of the medical care provided to incarcerated people at Calipatria State Prison between December 2023 and May 2024. We rated the case review component of the overall health care quality adequate and the compliance component of the overall health care quality inadequate.

Between March 2024 and August 2024, the department completed 288 investigations into complaints incarcerated people made against other incarcerated people that alleged violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). In this special review, we assessed departmental responses to 74 of these 288 (26 percent) investigations, finding that investigators did not perform one or more investigative procedures in 91 percent (67 of 74) of the cases we reviewed. We identified several other concerning issues in the department’s response to the PREA allegations we reviewed and poor oversight by the institutional committees that review the completed investigations for completeness and adequacy.