Skip to content

What is a Level 3 inmate California?

Table of Content

    SACRAMENTO, California. – The state can safely house some high-security inmates in lower-level prisons, a development that could save taxpayers money, according to a University of California study obtained by The Associated Press.

    The 18-month study by five crime experts comes as a new state law sends thousands of lower-degree offenders to local jails instead of state prisons.

    California Medical Center

    The California Medical Center is the Level 3 security prison in Vacaville, Solano County, California. Established 1995. Medical Center, also known as “CMF” by locals, is a male-only state prison.

    CMF is one of the newest correctional facilities in the state, equipped with features that meet or exceed national safety standards.

    Location: Queens, New York

    Size: 14,000

    Management Variables

    Management Variables (MGTV) are factors that can do this override a defendant’s PSF and are generally imposed by the identifier. The management variables include the following elements:

    • Court recommendation. On occasion, the BOP may rely on a court recommendation to apply an MGTV to place an occupant at a higher or lower safety level than the occupant’s score would require.
    • release residence. Occasionally, the BOP assigns an inmate to a facility because it is close to his or her “release residence,” even though the inmate’s score would normally require a facility with a different security level. Generally, this MGTV is applied to assign an occupant to a higher security facility, although in theory it can work both ways.
    • Population management. Sometimes the BOP moves an inmate to a higher security facility because the lower security facilities for which the inmate is qualified are overcrowded. If so, it applies this MGTV.
    • Central occupant monitoring order. Some inmates must be monitored or separated from others. Sometimes these special administrative issues limit placement opportunities. In this case, the BOP will apply this MGTV to allow placement outside of normal guidelines.
    • Medical or psychiatric. The BOP applies this MGTV when an inmate requires medical/psychiatric treatment that is only available at a facility outside their security rating.
    • work table. In secure facilities without satellite camps, the regional director can assign a certain number of inmates from the work squad to carry out work outside the facility’s boundaries. If such a location falls outside the normal security level rating guidelines, the BOP will apply this MGTV to allow the inmate to participate in the work squad.
    • PSF relieved. This MGTV applies when a PSF has been reviewed and approved for lifting by the DSCC Administrator and results in the occupant being placed at a different level of safety than if the PSF were in place.
    • Long term imprisonment. Although the BOP assigns security levels to long-term alien inmates at the time of initial classification, these inmates do not receive subsequent detention reviews as do regular non-alien BOP inmates. Therefore, if circumstances justify a transfer at a lower or higher value, the BOP will allocate that MGTV. This MGTV can only be approved by the Central Office of the Central Office of the Correctional Programs Division of the Correctional Programs Division of the BOP Detention Services Division.
    • More security. If the Bureau of Prisons believes that an inmate poses a greater security risk than the assigned security level suggests, it may apply this management variable and place the inmate in a facility with a higher security level. The BOP generally applies this MGTV to offenders with long arrest histories but few convictions, nonviolent offenders with a history of maladjustment under probation or community supervision, offenders with a history of involvement in organized crime, offenders with foreign connections, and/or – resources and offenders who had disciplinary problems during their previous incarceration. Inmates who receive this MGTV are reclassified to a higher security level than their score would require.
    • Less security. If the Bureau of Prisons concludes that delinquents pose less of a security risk than their security level suggests, it may apply this MGTV to place them in a facility outside of normal guidelines.
    Settings