Audit finds long housing delays and oversight gaps in California’s CONREP program; legislators call for fixes

At an oversight hearing of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, State Auditor Grant Parks told lawmakers the audit of California’s conditional release program for sexually violent predators (CONREP) found long delays locating community housing, inconsistent local participation in housing committees, and gaps in Department of State Hospitals (DSH) oversight of the vendor Liberty Healthcare.

The audit, issued in October 2024 and summarized to the committee by Grant Parks, found that courts sent 56 people to CONREP from the program’s 2003 start through April 2024 while 125 people were unconditionally released by the courts without CONREP supervision. Parks told the committee that only two of the 56 CONREP participants were later convicted of new crimes while in CONREP, but 18 of the 56 were returned to state hospitals after court revocations. “SVPs participating in the CONREP program were convicted of new offenses less frequently than SVPs who were unconditionally released,” Parks said, but he noted that courts revoked participation and returned individuals to hospitals for non‑compliance in many cases.

Why it matters: legislators from rural districts told the committee they see repeated placements in their communities, raising public safety and fairness concerns. Committee members pressed DSH and Liberty on costs, contracting and whether a state‑run transitional housing model should be adopted to shorten the time patients spend in hospitals after a court has authorized community placement.

Key findings reported to the committee

- Placement delays: The audit reported that from the time a court approves a CONREP participant’s program participation until a court approves a specific housing location, the average time to placement was about 17 months; for 20 people awaiting placement the audit measured an average wait of about 20 months, and one person had waited roughly 4.5 years as of April 2024. - Revocations and convictions: Parks said 18 of the 56 CONREP participants had been revoked and returned to state hospitals (about 32 percent), while two CONREP participants were convicted of new offenses while participating in CONREP. The auditor noted some court records cited generic ‘‘noncompliance’’ rather than specific violations that caused revocations. - Cost categories: The audit found Liberty Healthcare charges up to $2,800 per month per person for pre‑placement services. It cited fiscal‑year 2022–23 housing search costs of about $485,000 and costs to hold housing under consideration of about $415,000. - Local participation: The audit team reported that some local housing committee designees (district attorney, sheriff, county counsel and others) were unclear about their role and at times were reluctant to participate publicly; DSH had convened 15 housing committee meetings in 10 counties from January 2023–April 2024 but meeting minutes lacked detail on placement deliberations. - Oversight gaps: The auditor said DSH had identified operational deficiencies in Liberty’s document repository and documentation practices and did not have a process to ensure Liberty corrected some long‑standing problems promptly.

Department of State Hospitals’ response

DSH Director Stephanie Clendenin told the committee the department had implemented four of five audit recommendations on the schedule in the report, including guidance for housing committee designees, a formal program review of Liberty Healthcare (completed February 2025) and a new outcomes tracker. DSH disagreed with the audit recommendation to explore state‑owned transitional housing, saying it would not solve key barriers to placement and could add cost and community resistance. "We determined that this type of facility would not fix a number of the challenges we experience in placing individuals into the community," Clendenin said.

Liberty Healthcare’s position

Ken Carabello, senior vice president for Liberty Healthcare, defended the program partnership with the state and described CONREP as an intensive community‑based supervision and treatment model. He told the committee that conditional release programs typically detect failures of supervision and terms before those failures progress to new criminal offenses, and that is a reason CONREP registers more term violations than convictions. "If you do have a conditional release program, you will have more failures due to terms and conditions. That's a trade, however, to less actual crimes being committed," Carabello said.

Lawmakers’ reactions and next steps

Several lawmakers pressed for more aggressive reforms. Senator Jones, who requested the audit, said the program is "broken" and urged DSH to play a larger role in placement and oversight; he also said he has legislation to require DSH to consider transitional housing options. Multiple members from largely rural districts said communities feel disproportionately burdened by placements and voiced support for exploring transitional or alternative housing models and stronger vendor accountability.

DSH, the auditor and members of the committee said the department will continue implementing the audit recommendations and that the Legislature could consider statutory changes to address county domicile limits and other placement rules. The committee hearing produced no formal votes; members said they expect additional oversight and legislative follow‑up.

Ending: The hearing closed after public comment was solicited and members thanked the auditors and agency witnesses. Committee members signaled further work on bills and oversight would follow.