Report 2014-125 Recommendation 2 Responses

Report 2014-125: California Department of State Hospitals: It Could Increase the Consistency of Its Evaluations of Sex Offenders by Improving Its Assessment Protocol and Training (Release Date: March 2015)

Recommendation #2 To: State Hospitals, Department of

To improve the consistency of its evaluations, by June 2015, State Hospitals should create a written policy that requires its evaluators to include the following documentation in their evaluations: detail describing all the documentation they reviewed, the offender's psychosexual history, a description of the risk assessment instruments the evaluator used and the scoring tool for those risk assessments, and acknowledgement of the evaluator's review of the DECS report.

60-Day Agency Response

By May 18, 2015, DSH will issue a Forensic Division Information Letter (FDIL) to DSH evaluators and a Contract Evaluator Letter (CEL) to contracted evaluators that identifies the information they shall review and document in their evaluations.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

On May 18, 2015 the department released the FDIL and CEL mentioned in its response above. The letters list specific elements the department expects all evaluators to include in evaluations, including each of the elements named in the recommendation.


All Recommendations in 2014-125

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.