(a) The Department of Corrections shall operate the Preventing Parolee Crime Program with various components, including, at a minimum, residential and nonresidential multiservice centers, literacy labs, drug treatment networks, and job placement assistance for parolees.

(b) The Department of Corrections shall, commencing in the 1998–99 fiscal year, initiate an expansion of the program to parole units now lacking some or all of the elements of the program, where doing so would be cost-effective, as determined by the Director of Corrections, to the extent that funding for the expansion becomes available.

(c) In addition to the assignment by the Department of Corrections of any other parolee to the Preventing Parolee Crime Program, the parole authority may assign a conditionally released or paroled prisoner to the Preventing Parolee Crime Program in lieu of the revocation of parole. The parole authority shall not assign a conditionally released or paroled prisoner to the Preventing Parolee Crime Program in lieu of the revocation of parole if the person has committed a parole violation involving a violent or serious felony. A special condition of parole that requires the parolee to participate in a live-in program shall not be imposed without a hearing by the Board of Prison Terms.

(d) (1) The Department of Corrections, in consultation with the Board of Prison Terms and the Legislative Analyst’s office, shall, contingent upon funding, contract with an independent consultant to conduct an evaluation regarding the impact of an expansion of the Preventing Parolee Crime Program to additional parole units on public safety, parolee recidivism, and prison and parole costs, and report the results to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2004.

(2) The Department of Corrections shall sample several parole units in which the program has been added to examine the program’s impact upon the supervision, control, and sanction of parolees under the jurisdiction of the sampled parole units. These results shall be compared with a control group of comparable parole populations that do not have Preventing Parolee Crime Program services.

(3) The report, whether in final or draft form, and all working papers and data, shall be available for immediate review upon request by the Legislative Analyst.

(4) The department in consultation with the Board of Prison Terms shall submit a multiyear evaluation plan for the program to the Legislature six months after an appropriation is made for the evaluation provided for in paragraph (1).

(Added by Stats. 1998, Ch. 526, Sec. 2. Effective September 16, 1998.)