Impact

Parolee Rehab

We investigated California’s rehab efforts for parolees and found a $600 million program that couldn’t say whether it had helped anyone. Now, the state is taking action.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says it will begin measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the parole programs central to the state’s efforts to shrink its prison population. The move comes after a CalMatters investigation revealed the Specialized Treatment for Optimized Programming run by the Corrections Department did not collect data that would show how many participants found jobs or whether they went back to prison for another crime. A request for proposals on the state’s procurement website says that the department has “received one-time funding to measure parole outcomes.”

Digital Democracy

CalMatters’ Digital Democracy, an AI-powered, searchable database brings journalists, civic leaders and all Californians a powerful new way to peel back the layers of government.

The database enables unprecedented insights, such as a review of more than 1 million votes cast by current legislators over the past five years. Our reporters found that Democrats vote “no” less than 1% of the time, prompting complaints that the process appears to be a rubber stamp. Instead of voting “no,” legislators often kill bills by simply not voting. Critics say that’s how legislators dodge responsibility for tough decisions.

CalMatters teamed up with CBS-TV to show how advocates for fentanyl legislation were upset to learn from Digital Democracy that their bills died when legislators declined to vote. “I personally am insulted,” said the mother of a young person who died from a fentanyl overdose. “That is what they signed up for, to represent us.”

Transparency

Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of Common Cause, a public interest organization that focuses on campaign finance law, redistricting, and government reform, told CalMatters Capitol reporter Sameea Kamal he only become aware that the state may create a Public Records Act Ombudsperson office through her reporting of the passage of the bill establishing the office.

“I must admit this one flew under my radar, until I saw your coverage,” he said. The office, and ombudsperson to be appointed by the governor, would independently review denied public records requests to ensure that state agencies comply with the law, with decisions issued within 30 days.

Lobbying

As part of an investigation into lobbying by local governments, CalMatters state Capitol reporter Sameea Kamal contacted a local water agency. The agency admitted that their lobbying reports included inaccuracies and outdated bill numbers. Sameea’s analysis revealed lobbying by local governments of the Legislature and state agencies, funded by taxpayers, isn’t always transparent to the public and that some local governments appeared to be lobbying on bills that didn’t align with the interests or priorities of the communities the lobbyists were hired to represent.

Additionally, many of the reports failed to indicate support or opposition to specific bills. The water agency representative said they would correct the bills for current session reports. The story and data analysis by Jeremia Kimelman gave readers greater insight into a little-known kind of lobbying that accounts for 10% of all lobbying expenditures.

Firefighter PTSD

In Julie Cart’s groundbreaking series, Trial by Fire, California’s firefighters describe a broken and depleted fire service suffering a hidden, smoldering crisis. As climate change intensifies California’s wildfires, the state’s firefighters suffer from the increasing strain of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Decisions made while struggling with lack of sleep, long hours and stress could endanger not just the crews, but the public, too. What is the state doing to respond? Overwhelmingly, California’s firefighters say, “Not nearly enough.” These stories were distributed across our network of more than 250 newsrooms. In addition, CBS news stations across the state featured the story.

Wildlife

California State Senator Shannon Grove cited Rachel Becker’s article in her opposition to a batch of infrastructure bills that has raised concerns that the newly passed legislation eases protection of more than three dozen endangered wildlife species, noting that Rachel’s story was also on the committee chairperson’s desk.

One of the bills, for instance, grants the state Department of Fish and Wildlife with new authority to issue permits that allow certain “fully protected” species, like the golden eagle and greater sandhill crane, to be harmed by specific projects. Another sets a 270-day time limit on certain legal challenges to solar farms, wind facilities, reservoirs, and other clean energy and transportation initiatives. These projects are often subjected to prolonged delays due to lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Children’s Mental Health

Jocelyn Wiener’s story on the critical shortage of pediatric psychiatric hospital beds in California was cited in a state Department of Health Care Services proposal to expand access to non-hospital treatment facilities to low-income children insured by Medi-Cal. Jocelyn’s story highlighted the soaring numbers of psychiatric emergency room visits involving children, many of whom often must wait in the ER for days until a hospital bed becomes available.

A bill passed in September 2022 now allows children covered by Medi-Cal to receive treatment at licensed residential facilities specializing in children’s mental health.

Fatal Police Shootings

After our reporter revealed that the state Justice Department had not been logging all reported incidents of fatal police shootings of unarmed people, the agency said it would record all cases referred by local police agencies.

A 2021 law intended to ensure oversight of fatal police shootings requires the agency to investigate all cases in which an officer kills someone who is considered unarmed — but the agency may opt not to investigate if it determines that the person killed was armed in some way. Since the law took effect, dozens of deadly shootings were reported by local police agencies, at least 17 of which the department declined to investigate and never logged. After our reporting raised questions about transparency, the Justice Department tracked down and provided information on the rejected cases.

Toxic waste

In this story that took Rob and visual journalist Miguel Gutierrez to tribal lands in Arizona and the shores of the Great Salt Lake, we laid bare the hypocrisy of a state that positions itself as a global leader on the environment, yet ships much of its toxic waste to states with fewer regulations.

After we published our story, state lawmakers announced that a previously planned oversight hearing to improve the Department of Toxic Substances Control will also look into out of state dumping of toxic soil from old industrial, military and other cleanup sites — waste contaminated with things such as lead, petroleum hydrocarbons and the infamous insecticide DDT.

Electric Vehicles

An in-depth analysis of California’s transition to electric vehicles that calls into question the state’s ability to ensure that the electric grid will generate the power needed for 12.5 million electric vehicles by 2035 while at the same time relying almost completely on solar and wind power.

During a legislative hearing, California State Assemblymember Vince Fong, citing Nadia’s report, challenged the California Air Resources Board’s contention that it can meet the mandated deadlines when little progress has been made on putting in place the policies and power infrastructure to keep the lights on while electrifying cars and trucks.

Homeless Struggles

Jackie Botts profiled Fernando, a Los Angeles man struggling with homelessness. The pandemic gave the chronically homeless veteran a chance at permanent supportive housing, but his experience differed from what state leaders envision.

In response, the deputy secretary of the state housing agency said: “It is the best story I’ve seen since I’ve been here about what an individual experiencing homelessness has to go through. And the sidebar about the five challenges in expanding permanent supportive housing also hit the nail on the head – especially the part about treatment being siloed. I know Secretary Castro Ramírez was also impressed, as were staff at the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.”’