Penal Code section 4497.14

(a)

The board shall not approve the expenditures of funds allocated under this act for the construction of county detention facilities until a master site plan for county detention facilities has been prepared and adopted by the board of supervisors of the county proposing to construct the facility. The board of supervisors shall determine the location of any detention facilities pursuant to a master plan, which determination shall not be subject to any initiative or ordinance adopted by initiative. In developing the plan, the board of supervisors shall consider alternatives to additional detention facilities and the specific concerns of incorporated cities and other community representatives, and shall give special consideration to existing federal, state, and local detention facilities in order to avoid over-concentration of inmates in one geographic area of the county. If the board of supervisors decides to locate new or expanded detention facilities near existing detention facilities, it shall publicly state its reasons for that decision.
The board shall only approve expenditure of funds allocated under this chapter for the construction of detention facilities in accordance with the plan adopted pursuant to this section. The board may exempt a county from this requirement if the master site plan remains unchanged from that approved under the provisions of the County Correctional Facilities Capital Expenditure Bond Act of 1986.

(b)

The board shall establish construction costs controls and shall set forth in regulation procedures for setting maximum state funding levels for appropriate construction unit costs, including cost per cell for specified categories of facilities. These cost controls shall be based on average costs in recently constructed facilities in California that are comparable in size, use, location, and other relevant factors.
Allocations listed in Section 4497.04 notwithstanding, the state contribution shall be up to 75 percent of total project costs or up to 75 percent of the applicable construction cost norms, whichever is lower. Nothing in this section is intended, however, to prescribe maximum limits on county funding levels for the projects.
Prior to releasing any funds to a county, the board shall review construction cost levels in the funded projects for compliance with cost control regulations.

(c)

Prior to entering into a contract with a county, the board shall review or approve or both review and approve the county submissions required by this chapter regarding the facility or facilities proposed for funding.

(d)

The board shall collect annually from all counties information on county incarceration rates, average daily jail populations as a proportion of the total county population or total arrests or both; pretrial misdemeanant ratios, the percentage which unsentenced prisoners charged only with misdemeanors constitute the total average daily unsentenced jail population; and sentenced alternatives ratios, for example, average daily populations in work-in-lieu of jail programs and county parole as a percentage of the total average daily sentenced misdemeanant prisoner population. All counties that have received or will receive state funds for jail construction shall supply the board the information necessary to comply with this section.

Source: Section 4497.14, https://leginfo.­legislature.­ca.­gov/faces/codes_displaySection.­xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=4497.­14.­ (accessed Apr. 24, 2025).

Last Updated

Apr. 24, 2025

§ 4497.14’s source at ca​.gov