Audit Shows California State Hospitals, Prisons Rely On Costly Contract Labor Amid Soaring Staff Vacancies

CBS Bay Area

December 5, 2025

California's essential health care facilities are wasting money on expensive contract labor amid chronic staffing shortages, even as agencies involved report hundreds of millions of dollars in savings from unfilled positions, a new report shows.

The report by the California State Auditor, released Thursday, focused on three Central California facilities that house incarcerated or institutionalized individuals, or those deemed incompetent to stand trial: Salinas Valley State Prison, Porterville Developmental Center, and Atascadero State Hospital. Each is run separately by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Department of Developmental Services, and the Department of State Hospitals.

The audit determined that vacancy rates at the facilities have grown significantly since July 2019, and the facilities have increasingly used contract workers to address the vacancies, which cost the state more per hour than their civil service counterparts, even after factoring in benefits. The contract employees, who make up 4% to 10% of the total medical and mental health staff, also had significantly shorter tenures than state workers, the audit found, with the constant turnover presenting serious challenges in providing the needed care for committed and incarcerated patient populations.

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