This week, the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) released the Senate Bill 863 Jail Construction Request for Proposals (RFP), which provides $500 million in lease revenue bonds for the construction, reconstruction, and renovation of local detention facilities and programming capacity. RCRC worked with the BSCC staff and the SB 863 Executive Steering Committee (ESC) – the entity charged with developing the SB 863 RFP – over the past six months to secure a dedicated funding set-aside and reduced match requirement for small counties. Additionally, RCRC was represented by Colusa County Supervisor Kim Vann during the SB 863 ESC meeting in February when members first discussed development of the jail construction program. Supervisor Vann presented and discussed the RCRC recommendations at great length with members of the SB 863 ESC. Included in the final program are two critical components that RCRC has consistently advocated for: 1) the SB 863 RFP contains a $100 million set-aside for California’s small counties (under 200,000 population); and, 2) a process for small counties to petition the BSCC for a reduced state match requirement. Importantly, small counties that petition the BSCC can have their state match requirement reduced to a zero sum, although there are some ineligible costs that would remain the responsibility of the county.
The SB 863 RFP contains $100 million for small counties, $160 million for medium-sized counties, and $240 million available for large-sized counties with a $20 million, $40 million, and $80 million maximum award amount respectively. Additionally, the SB 863 RFP includes a process for small counties to petition the BSCC for a reduced match requirement. The BSCC has scheduled a bidders’ conference on June 26 to discuss the SB 863 RFP with interested stakeholders. Information on the upcoming bidders’ conference, timeline and application process, and the county population chart are provided in the SB 863 RFP which is available here.
For additional information, please contact RCRC Legislative Analyst Randall Echevarria at 916.447.4806 or rechevarria@rcrcnet.org.