State Prison Officials Failed to Complete Thousands of Misconduct Investigations, Inspector General Finds

• California’s inspector general finds that the unit in charge of investigating prisoner complaints is plagued with delays, unmanageable caseloads and a skyrocketing backlog of grievances.
• The California Federation of Teachers, the union that represents 100,000 California school employees, is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to put a hold on the use of AI in public schools. 
• The California Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on a class action lawsuit involving enlisted service members who were being charged higher rates for car insurance than officers.

A new report finds that the performance of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Allegation Investigation Unit has “declined dramatically.”

The AIU was set up in 2022, as part of an effort by prison officials to more thoroughly and fairly address the thousands of complaints made by incarcerated people each year.

But recent reports from the inspector general reveal an escalating crisis in the unit, driven by ballooning caseloads, delayed investigations and a growing backlog of complaints.

In contrast, the report found that CDCR’s traditional Office of Internal Affairs, which handles serious criminal allegations and complaints coming from other staff members, rather than prisoners, stayed largely consistent in its performance.

The California Federation of Teachers is asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to pause the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, citing concerns about the safety of students and teachers.

The union sent a letter to Newsom this week asking the outgoing governor to issue an executive order placing a three-year moratorium on “student-facing technologies that include generative AI features” in kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms.

The letter said the temporary ban is necessary so that Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra and lawmakers can “work with stakeholders and pass legislation that will protect from the known and potentially unknown harms of AI.”

“California must pause the proliferation of this unregulated and unsecure technology in our classrooms while we engage in further research and develop an education-focused plan on technology and its use in the classroom,” the letter stated.

A Newsom spokesperson said his office was reviewing the letter. Such an order would likely require the approval of the legislature because it would involve a change in statute.

In a case that could affect millions of Californians, the state Supreme Court agreed this week to consider whether insurance companies can be sued for their rates under a nearly 40-year-old ballot measure.

Proposition 103, approved by 51% of the voters in 1988, required insurers to obtain approval from the state’s elected insurance commissioner for all types of insurance rates, including car insurance. It also entitled vehicle owners to a 20% discount in their rates if they had a good driving record for the previous three years.

But consumer advocates say insurers have charged rates that exceed Prop 103 standards and have been shielded from lawsuits by court rulings. A state appeals court ruled in July that auto insurers could charge higher rates for unmarried drivers because of evidence that they were more likely to get into accidents, and the state Supreme Court denied review of that case.