New Report on The Cost of Solitary Confinement in California Supports Passage of the Mandela Act, AB 2632

A new report published by Berkeley Underground Scholars and Immigrant Defense Advocates details the cost savings that could result from reducing reliance on solitary confinement in California. If passed, the California Mandela Act, AB 2632, would drastically reduce solitary confinement in both criminal and immigration custody in the state. In 2021, New York passed the HALT Act, a bill that provides similar protections to the Mandela Act.

A full copy of the report is available here. Some key findings include:

1. Estimated Savings From Limiting Solitary Confinement- Using the Governor’s budget from 2016 and cost estimates provided by CDCR, we estimate between $60 million to $300 million in savings annually from the bill According to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, the reduction of solitary units leads to net savings for the state: “Because security housing units require more custody staff than most other units, these conversions would result in net savings.”
2. CDCR’s Fiscal Analysis Is Counter to The Facts-Changes undertaken by CDCR based on the Ashker v. Brown settlement document clear fiscal savings from limiting solitary confinement, and demonstrate that CDCR is capable of repurposing existing space As a result of the Ashker v. Brown Settlement, CDCR has already begun to transition some high-security units in CDCR to general population and special needs yards and has undertaken construction to provide programming space in facilities that need it. All costs associated with this transition have been covered by the massive savings generated by this transition. 
3. CDCR Has Space and Resources- CDCR has an estimated 9,000 specialized beds and already has significant resources that can be dedicated to programming to reduce the use of solitary confinement. The projected decline in CDCR’s future population, coupled with CDCR’s significant investments in programming and rehabilitation will allow CDCR to implement the Mandela Act with minimal fiscal impact.  

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