How to fix California’s jails + Newsom’s go-to consultant + Getting banks for marijuana industry
And we’re back! Today we kick off the 2020 legislative season. It’s going to be an exciting year. Tips, ideas, thoughts on what the next nine to 10 months have in store? Feel free to share them all at hwiley@sacbee.com
WHERE ARE PEOPLE DYING?
Via Jason Pohl...
One chilly afternoon last January, ProPublica’s Ryan Gabrielson and I, along with a handful of editors, gathered around a conference room table. We had one thing on the afternoon’s agenda: brainstorm a project studying what was going on inside California’s jails in the years since 2011’s public safety realignment.
“Where are people dying?” we puzzled, squinting at my laptop screen and doing some back-of-the-napkin math and analysis.
What happened to the broader criminal justice system?
Who was in charge of jail oversight?
Where was the state money going?
After criss-crossing California, we got some answers. We found indifference to inmate deaths in Fresno and extreme isolation in Bakersfield. We found stalled out jail facility projects in Merced and potentially illegal spending in Contra Costa County.
And in today’s piece, we reopened our notebooks to see how policy makers and experts suggest improving conditions. Their ideas boil down to four key reforms:
Strengthen state oversight board
Investigate jail deaths
Overhaul standards for solitary confinement
Audit counties and curb illegal spending
Much of what we found last year echoed what experts have long said. Realignment provided short-term fixes to the state’s prison overcrowding. But it has not solved California’s broader incarceration problems.
In many ways, Robert Weisberg, a Stanford University law professor, said it made county sheriffs more like prison wardens with broad discretion over state money, creating “widely disparate and unpredictable” policies statewide.
Now lawmakers are calling for accountability.
And Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he is crafting plans focused on local lockups and the sheriffs who run them. (More details about his criminal justice-related outlays are expected this week.)
The bulk of our series might be complete. We answered most of the questions we came up with that morning in January. But we came up with dozens more — questions I’ll be working on as we kick off 2020.
AN INTERESTING APPROACH
Via Sophia Bollag
Gov. Newsom turned at least four times to global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. over the past year when he wanted to bring a private sector perspective to California government.
He hired a former McKinsey executive as his top economics adviser, and put him in charge of the state’s business department and its $79 billion high-speed rail project.
The Newsom administration sought McKinsey’ help with separate contracts for guidance on fixing problems at the DMV and improving education opportunities in Fresno. McKinsey won a $1.5 million contract for its DMV work and earned $600,000 for its education study, according to state records.
The governor tapped a current McKinsey executive to lead a commission on the future of work. Newsom also relied on expertise from McKinsey during his 2018 campaign and while he was lieutenant governor.
It’s not unusual for a governor to turn to a private consultant, but California policy experts say Newsom’s approach is distinct.
Seeking outside consulting from a firm like McKinsey is typical in business and Republican administrations, but is rare for a Democratic governor, said Thad Kousser, a political scientist at UC San Diego.
“Chief executives often rely on consultants, but it’s often part of the Republican playbook,” Kousser said.
McKinsey has been under scrutiny this year amid federal investigations into the firm’s bankruptcy practice. The New York Times has reported on how the firm became embroiled in corruption scandals in foreign countries, including South Africa. McKinsey has denied wrongdoing.
To read Bollag’s full report, please click here.
BANKING ON BUD
Via Andrew Sheeler
Cannabis companies will be sure to keep a close eye on one bill set to come back in the 2020 legislative session.
Senate Bill 51 would allow banks and credit unions to apply for a limited-purpose bank license that would authorize cannabis businesses to open accounts and deposit income.
Cannabis is prohibited under federal law, and banks and credit unions are nervous about dealing with cannabis companies.
Sponsored by Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, SB 51 offered relief to beleaguered cannabis and cannabis-adjacent companies who otherwise are forced to operate in cash, including when it comes to paying taxes.
Though the bill had the support of Majority Leader Hertzberg and State Treasurer Fiona Ma, critics raised several questions, including how it would conflict with federal law, prompting Hertzberg to make SB 51 a two-year bill.
Hertzberg’s office is working with the governor’s office and other stakeholders to find a way to get the bill through the Assembly. It has already passed through the State Senate.
Hertzberg spokeswoman Katie Hanzlik said that the bill may not make it to a vote in January, but that there will likely be movement on the bill in early 2020.
Because the bill comes with an urgency clause, if signed into law it would go into effect immediately, rather than having to wait for Jan. 1, 2021.
In case you missed it — California lawmakers said their focus this year will be reducing construction barriers to ease the state’s housing and affordability crisis. Here’s how they plan to do it.
Also in news — Nearly 650,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals have renewed their status in the last year since California secured a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s decision to end the program, according to Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
A good question for today...
- Russell Hartley, communications diretor for Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
- California’s Democratic Party announced on Friday that it has reached settlements with five staff members who accused the party’s former leader of discrimination, assault and unwanted sexual advances, by Bryan Anderson
A Tahoe Vista, California, man was harassed online and at home after state officials gave him a permit to have a bear killed when it destroyed his property. Scientists say the animals are adapting to humans, by Ryan Sabalow and Alex Yoon-Hendricks