CDCR CCHCS Entrance Screening Process
Update

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On February 4, 2021, our Union met with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to meet and confer over the implementation of the institutional entrance screening policy at each institution throughout the state.

The State team explained the need to expand screening in this way was to provide more coverage of institutional entry points and minimize screening avoidance. The State also explained that due to the individual nature of how each institution operates, individual issues related to entrance screening should be elevated at the local level, specifically as it relates to screening rotations, screening locations, weather appropriate conditions, etc.

Some of the major details from the meet and confer include:

  • Your Union team raised concerns about inclement weather conditions, parking lot hazards, etc., and the overall lack of preparedness to provide adequate supplies to protect employees from the elements, stating the institutions overall approach should be more proactive.
     
  • The State team stated each institution should be consistently addressing supply needs and communicating with the workforce on the progress of providing necessary supplies. The State also explained the order supply process can be slow, and the State is bound by many fire codes which prevent them from providing certain supplies to protect employees from inclement weather, such as temporary structures, heaters, extension cords, etc.
     
  • The Union team raised concerns about the added wait times that the entrance screening has resulted in throughout the state for employees. The State replied that employees should give themselves a reasonable amount of time to go through entrance screening and report to their work location, but employees should not be disciplined for longer than usual wait times due to entrance screening. Employees should communicate the long wait times to their supervisors upon reporting to their work location.
     
  • CDCR and CCHCS were asked to provide each institution’s latest monthly reports which ensures compliance with the entrance screening procedures memorandum issued in October of 2020, to which the State team replied that each institution may or may not have a physical/digital plan for entrance screening but should have one in place at the local level.

Our Union held the table open to continue to raise concerns on the entrance screening process. If you have raised specific entrance screening issues to your local chain of command as it relates to necessary equipment, screening procedures, and/or the entrance screening process, please share those by emailing your unit email box at either unit1@seiu1000.org, unit3@seiu1000.org, unit4@seiu1000.org, unit15@seiu1000.org, unit17@seiu1000.org or unit20@seiu1000.org.