California is the first state in the nation to enable its prison system to provide Medi-Cal funded pre-release services. This groundbreaking effort ensures that incarcerated individuals with chronic health conditions, mental health needs, or substance use disorders receive linkages to the critical care and support they need as they transition back to their communities.

By offering these new classifications, CDCR and CCHCS aim to provide enhanced mental health services, reduce recidivism through therapeutic interventions, and improve overall health outcomes for individuals in state custody.

On or about Nov. 15, 2024, CCHCS discovered that two boxes containing medical and dental records of more than 500 CDCR patients at Valley State Prison were found to be missing, and their current location remains unclear.

A staff member inadvertently emailed an attachment containing PHI to an unauthorized recipient outside the department. Although this information was sent to an unauthorized recipient, they did not view or access the attachment.

Among California’s prison population, the rate of overdose deaths declined 58 percent from 2019-2020 through January 2022.

On November 30, 2021, following an investigation, California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) sent out approximately 2,550 notification letters for a privacy incident involving Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that occurred on September 3, 2021, when labor unions were emailed a report with non-member data.