(a) Commencing July 1, 2012, there is hereby established the Board of State and Community Corrections. The Board of State and Community Corrections shall be an entity independent of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The Governor may appoint an executive officer of the board, subject to Senate confirmation, who shall hold the office at the pleasure of the Governor. The executive officer shall be the administrative head of the board and shall exercise all duties and functions necessary to ensure that the responsibilities of the board are successfully discharged. As of July 1, 2012, any references to the Board of Corrections or the Corrections Standards Authority shall refer to the Board of State and Community Corrections. As of that date, the Corrections Standards Authority is abolished.

(b) The mission of the board shall include providing statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships in California’s adult and juvenile criminal justice system, including addressing gang problems. This mission shall reflect the principle of aligning fiscal policy and correctional practices, including, but not limited to prevention, intervention, suppression, supervision, and incapacitation, to promote a justice investment strategy that fits each county and is consistent with the integrated statewide goal of improved public safety through cost-effective, promising, and evidence-based strategies for managing criminal justice populations.

(c) The board shall regularly seek advice from a balanced range of stakeholders and subject matter experts on issues pertaining to adult corrections, juvenile justice, and gang problems relevant to its mission. Toward this end, the board shall seek to ensure that its efforts (1) are systematically informed by experts and stakeholders with the most specific knowledge concerning the subject matter, (2) include the participation of those who must implement a board decision and are impacted by a board decision, and (3) promote collaboration and innovative problem solving consistent with the mission of the board. The board may create special committees, with the authority to establish working subgroups as necessary, in furtherance of this subdivision to carry out specified tasks and to submit its findings and recommendations from that effort to the board.

(d) The board shall act as the supervisory board of the state planning agency pursuant to federal acts. It shall annually review and approve, or review, revise, and approve, the comprehensive state plan for the improvement of criminal justice and delinquency and gang prevention activities throughout the state, shall establish priorities for the use of funds as are available pursuant to federal acts, and shall approve the expenditure of all funds pursuant to such plans or federal acts, provided that the approval of those expenditures may be granted to single projects or to groups of projects.

(e) It is the intent of the Legislature that any statutory authority conferred on the Corrections Standards Authority or the previously abolished Board of Corrections shall apply to the Board of State and Community Corrections on and after July 1, 2012, unless expressly repealed by the act which added this section. The Board of State and Community Corrections is the successor to the Corrections Standards Authority, and as of July 1, 2012, is vested with all of the authority’s rights, powers, authority, and duties, unless specifically repealed by this act.

(f) For purposes of this chapter, “federal acts” means Subchapter V of Chapter 46 of the federal Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-351, 82 Stat. 197; 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3750 et seq.), the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 5601 et seq.), and any act or acts amendatory or supplemental thereto.

(Amended (as added by Stats. 2011, Ch. 36, Sec. 31) by Stats. 2012, Ch. 41, Sec. 79. (SB 1021) Effective June 27, 2012. Section operative July 1, 2012, pursuant to Stats. 2011, Ch. 36, Sec. 83 (which was amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 136, with no impact on this section).)