Senate Standing Committee on Rules

All right, ladies and gentlemen, again I want to take a moment on behalf of the entire Senate Rules Committee to say thank you for your patience. Apologize about some of the last minute coordination. We. Our Madam Vice Chair, Vice Chair Grove, sends her apologies. She's at a. An important event here today. Legislative event today.

But holding down the fart is going to be leader. Jones. You better believe it. We're going to turn it over. zero, hey, watch out. All right, Madam Secretary, if you want to call the roll.

[Roll Call]

A quorum has been established. Thank you so much. For Members of the Senate Rules Committee, we're going to be moving into some administrative items and we're going to come right then to Ms. Kent and to Mr. Eaton and do appreciate the patience. Thank you so much. We're going to start on governor's appointees not required to appear.

This is item two. Do we have a motion? So move. We have a motion by Senator Laird. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion. Let's call the roll.

[Roll Call]

That's a 4-0 vote. That motion passes. We're going to close the roll. We're now going to be advancing to item number three. That's Bill referrals. Do we have a motion? So move. We have a motion by Senator Laird. Any discussion? Hearing none. Let's go to Madam Secretary to call the roll.

[roll call]

That's a 4-0 vote. That motion passes. We're closing the roll. We're now moving on to item number four. This is Subcommitee ratification. I do want to make note, I do anticipate on this specific Subcommitee that will be coming back in front of this body to appoint a Republican Member to the Subcommitee.

But we're going to be appointing the Subcommitee proposed to appoint the Subcommitee here today. But we'll most likely be back with a Republican Member here in the coming weeks. Is there a motion to approve? I would so move. We have a motion by Senator Laird. Any discussion? Hearing? None. Please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

That motion passes. And we'll be back.

And Mr. Chair, with great pleasure, I will move item number five.

Hey, that's what I'm saying.

You don't even have to ask.

All right. I love it. And I do Want to say thank you so much to Senator Laird for stepping up on this. And the other piece I want to say with Senator Laird. Senator Laird has been incredibly patient on this specific request. And I want to say thank you, Senator Laird, and know the important work that you're going to be advancing.

I wasn't older when it started the prcoess.

So we do have a motion by Senator Laird. Any discussion? All right, seeing none. Let's call the roll.

[Roll Call]

4-0 vote. That motion passes. We're closing the roll. We're now advancing to floor. Acknowledgments. Is there a motion?

I would move all of them, 6 through 13.

Senator Laird is moving all floor acknowledgments items 6 through 13. Any discussion? Very controversial one here today. All right, we are going to. Hey, look at that, huh? This is exciting. Okay, like to keep it awkward, we have a motion by Senator Laird. No discussion. Let's call the roll.

[Roll Call]

4-0 vote. That motion passes. We are going to close the roll. We're now going to be jumping back up, and we're going to welcome the appointees to the hearing. First and foremost, we want to say thank you so much to Angela Kent.

As the Associate Director in Region 2, she oversees the Division of Adult Institutions within CDCR and of course, on the women's prisons as well. So we want to say thank you so much. We're grateful that you're here. We also want to say thank you for appearing to Patrick Eaton.

He's the Associate Director under Region 1, Division of Adult Institutions within CDCR. To each of you as the associate directors and as the proposed appointees, we are going to provide you two to three minutes for an opening statement each.

We're going to welcome you to offer any acknowledgments of family, friends, individuals who may be here you'd like to be able to shout out today. I will give you a time when you're at 30 seconds to three minutes. And we just respectfully request that you then adjourn at three minutes.

We're then going to open it up for the Committee to be able to have a collaborative conversation, ask questions, and, of course, advance any debate. So with that, we want to welcome you, Associate Director Kent. Thank you so much for your service to the people of California. The floor is yours. You have three minutes in your opening statement.

Thank you. Chair and distinguished Senate Rules Committee Members. I'm thankful to be in front of you today seeking confirmation for the Associate Director, Division of Adult Institutions with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

First, I want to introduce my daughter, a local college student, my son, a recent Air Force Pararescue veteran, and my husband, also an Air Force veteran and recently retired from a distinguished law enforcement career with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office and the Eldorado District Attorney's Office.

Further, I'd like to recognize my husband as a true partner in my journey, my children for sacrifice as I balance life as a single mother, a graduate student and a law enforcement professional. They're my greatest gifts.

I want to thank my family, my closest friends, both here and on the line, knowing that with their love and support, I continue to strive for excellence, both personally and professionally. I want to thank Governor Newsom for appointing me to this position.

I also want to thank the CDCR Executive team, my team, everyone in this room and watching online for their ongoing confidence and support. Excuse me. I want to acknowledge national experts and the pioneers for gender and justice. Dr. Covington, Dr. Owen, Dr. Bloom,

Dr. Messina, the National Institute of Corrections and innovative programming partners like Gordon Philanthropies, Impact justice, the Anti Recidivism Coalition and the numerous other valuable stakeholders. Over my 26 year career in law enforcement, I've worked in various probation and parole roles, particularly with women. My career started as a college graduate and juvenile probation in the County of Santa Cruz.

With that, I embrace a mission to fundamentally reshape our prison system, promoting staff wellness and fair and equitable treatment for those incarcerated, particularly our women. I look forward to your questions today. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ms. Kent. We're grateful you're here and thank you for the passionate and very personal testimony here today. Thank you. We're going to welcome Mr. Eaton to the Committee. Sir, you have three minutes. I'll give you a 30 second prompt as you get close. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and esteemed Committee Members. My name is Patrick Eaton and I'm the Associate Director of Region 1 for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. And I'm honored and humbled to be sitting before you today seeking your confirmation.

I'd like to introduce the heart and soul of my support system, my amazing wife, Tina, and my greatest accomplishment, my children, Logan and Megan, as well as my daughter in law, Evelyn. They flew in last night to be here and have been my steadfast support as I've navigated this journey.

I'd like to thank Governor Newsom for appointing me to this position, as well as his staff for having the confidence in me to carry out the duties and responsibilities associated with it.

I would also like to thank Secretary McCumber and his Executive leadership team for their continued support, as well as my mentors, my past and current team Members, many of whom are here today, either in person or online. They continue to make me successful.

When I came in this Department as a correctional officer 29 years ago, I had no idea what an associate Director was, nor could I have predicted sitting before you today. However, this Department offers so many opportunities and has so many great and dedicated staff.

My career has taken me to positions located throughout the state which has provided me a firm belief in the hard work the staff conduct as well as the life changing educational rehabilitative opportunities that the incarcerated population complete on their pathway to rehabilitation.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and I look forward to being able to answer any of your questions. Thank you so much to both of you.

We're going to open it up for questions, comments and any concerns. Let's start with Senator Laird. Floor, sir.

Thank you very much. And apparently we. And now I understand from your introduction your husband were all county employees in Santa Cruz at the same time. So you've survived it. Congratulations.

Thank you.

I think what I first want to thank you both for your service. But it's interesting, I read each of your resumes and your work history and so now we are working toward the California model.

And yet each of you grew up in the system or a system where that wasn't the model and it was much more conventional in corrections. And I thought I'd ask each of you to comment. What's it like to sort of come up through one way and now have a model that's different? How's that a challenge for you?

Just then you came up and how are you intending to deal with it now? And maybe start with Associate Director Kent. And then get to,

Thank you for that question. I actually love that you asked that question. So my perspective is so different, so unique. It did not come up in the prison system.

When you mentioned Santa Cruz County, even in the late 90s, we were heavily involved in evidence based practice, looking at best practices, worked on juvenile reform, adult reform during the drug court era, and really looked at a human centered approach and the whole individual during that period. So during my career it's been consistently programming.

When I went into parole, I know what you're saying. Over that time we've changed tremendously in the legal system and our laws. But for me, this pivotal change in corrections is exciting. I see. I've watched tremendous culture change over the years in probation Department, in parole, and now we're seeing it here in corrections.

And so I guess to sum it up, the California model isn't new for me. It's the business that we've been doing and applying evidence based strategies and best practices. And to do that globally, I think puts us on the forefront of leadership nationally and internationally. Thank you.

And maybe a follow up and then Mr. Eaton can address it. So how do you judge that as you move into the model and you're doing things differently, you're being successful? How do you feel like? You know that?

Right. So there are things, there are the measurables and then the things that you wouldn't necessarily measure in data. Right. And so you're looking at culture and when you talk about staff wellness, because that's a big deal to be creating a safe space.

You, you can look at things like work comp or, you know, sick leave usage or things like that. But really, you, you look at the environmental change and the feedback. And I'm heavily involved in town halls and my women's prisons. I spend a lot of time in there meeting with staff managers.

I like the leaders, the women that are incarcerated, and our partners that work in there. So there's a lot of feedback that you can measure as you implement programs and look at the changing culture.

Thank you, Mr. Eaton.

No pressure. Yeah, follow that. Well, thank you. And I believe as an agency, we acknowledged that maybe there's a better way to do business. And so we've relied on our partners, if you will, whether it be nationwide or internationally, to just look at a different approach.

Majority of everybody that's incarcerated is going to be released back into society. And we need to be able to have an environment where they're comfortable seeking education, seeking rehabilitation, able to do those things just to better prepare themselves for that eventual path back into society.

And so it's just, I think a lot of us have always had that mentality and conducted ourselves in that manner within the Department, but it's really just changing the culture, like Ms. Kent said, and making people feel comfortable, both our staff and the population, so that they are seeking out opportunities.

We want our staff to have longevity and we want the population to be successful.

Great. I appreciate that. I think that's a good opening. And I should tell you, I went up to a juvenile hall on Graham Hill for the first time in 30 years a couple of months ago and the population was 12.

And I could just recall when I worked for the county, it was 70, it was 80, it was 90. And things were changing and you could get a sense of that. So thank you both. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly. Thank you so much.

Madam Majority Leader, floor is yours.

Thank you and thank you both. Director Eaton and Kent, appreciate your candor here. I have a question. Obviously we'd. I'll start with Director Kent. The big question, of course, in ensuring how we continue to be more proactive in ensuring that women are safe in prisons.

As we've known histories of sexual assaults, even if it's past a Decade or so, OBGYNs abusing women, forced sterilization in the past. I mean, the history is not great, we know that.

But I'd like to ask you, the big question is how we are going to continue to proactively ensure that all women are safe in our prisons.

Yeah, I appreciate that question. Thank you. This for all. Transparency has been one of the most challenging assignments and being confronted with taking on a role where you are faced with the unthinkable. And as a Department and as a human, there's a zero tolerance to this conduct. We have made a lot of progress, a lot of changes.

There's a constant evaluation to change. Anytime that you get comfortable and say, hey, our process is working, that's not the case. So some of the things that we have done and will continue to do is we were fortunate enough for the Legislature to give the funding and create for us to create the sex assault working prevention group.

And we did present a report in March of 2024. We continue to work with the Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition and our other stakeholders to identify and improve our responses to any, you know, prea related matters or prevention strategies. And that is ongoing. That doesn't stop. We just did a town hall at ciw.

We'll be doing another town hall at ccwf. I meet quarterly with our advisory councils at the prisons to get feedback. I meet with our staff. We do training. We've improved our training. We now are in March beginning our safety matters.

22 and a half hours of training for our staff to learn how to deal and work with women, to know their pathways and also communication strategies and boundaries. So we also have updated rape crisis posters created direct dial, four digit numbers, confidential and anonymous on tablets.

We have created posters throughout the institutions, not just the women's, but statewide with a flowchart on what happens in reporting. We have established two prea compliance lieutenants in both of our women's prisons completely focused on prea. We have continued to work with Just Detention International on PREA peer education in our prisons.

We continue to work with external states. So it's a PREA consortium, a state consortium where we are evaluated by PREA auditors from other states. We do internal auditing. There is, we went, we are currently, you know, we're under US DOJ investigation. We've been fully compliant. We have laid out all of our, our documents.

We continue to, to look forward to what that investigation produces so we can continue our improvements. So like I said, this has been an ongoing effort. My teams deploy out to the institutions, my PREA compliance team. We continue to train, look at our training and evolve.

Thank you. And I appreciate that. Those were my last two questions that you answered, which were what budget items or policies, additional ideas that you'd had to ensure the safety of women in our prisons. And obviously the US DOJ investigating CDCR still underway.

You are proactively working with them to ensure that we see something come to fruition in terms of safety. Absolutely holding safety. Thank you, I appreciate that. And then just Director Eaton, how are you ensuring dangerous people do not end up in our lower level facilities like conservation camps?

We have a very thorough, rigorous process that we follow in evaluating. Right. It's not just coming in looking at that, but our goal is to get everybody programming in the lowest level that is safe to do so because public safety is paramount in what we do.

So we do rigorously evaluate folks before they're placed out into conservation camps. There's automatic exclusions, but there's also ways, you know, that not for the automatic exclusions, but individuals that were at a higher level basically to show that pathway that they're there and they're ready.

And so we continue to evaluate that, to look for the best ways to be able to support that and give people that opportunity.

Thank you. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Mr. Pro Tem. And we look forward to working with you. Appreciate your answers.

Thank you so much, Madam Majority Leader. Thank you. Associate Director Eaton. I'd like to follow up on the Majority Leader's questions in regards to the women's facilities. And I'd like to first of all look at the internal affairs case data.

Then I'd like to compare just so I am making sure that I'm tracking the numbers on the internal tracking system. So right now I have the numbers that CDCR provided between 2019 and 2024 regards the cases referred for prosecution. And then I'm going to jump down to the allegations against staff that are in the tracking system.

And the difference in time is that the referred for prosecution is 2019 to 2024 and the tracking system is from 2022 to current day. So my first question is how many of those 202022 through 2024 cases that have been referred for prosecution are being closed out within that tracking system? Do you have those numbers?

I do not. But we could follow up with you on the data.

Okay. And then specifically what I'd like to get a better understanding on, I'd like to be able to see breakdown, cross comparison between the two. And then is it sexual misconduct, is it sexual violence or sexual harassment?

So if, and before we move on the floor, I'd like to be able to see that here. If we could follow up with CDCR and Lisa Chin, who does a phenomenal job on behalf of Senate Rules Committee, will be following up with CDCR on that.

Okay.

On my second question is under the definition that CDCR uses for sexual misconduct, it's threatened course attempted or completed sexual assault, assault or battery of an incarcerated person by staff. I assume on the issue of sexual violence, we're talking that would be in the category, for example of rape would be example. Can you clarify, please okay.

On the sexual misconduct within the tracking that 32 sexual violence hits 5 and it doesn't break down by year within the tracking system. My question on this is are, are you seeing any impact? Are you seeing a difference like to be able to get your take on this?

So I know you asked for a follow up on the data, so I'm going to set that aside for a minute and just talk about the, the stance that we take on on these type of cases. So there, like I said before, there's a zero tolerance.

And since I came into the seat, we have essentially brought in new leadership into our women's presence. We have identified when misconduct is happening and made the referrals immediately.

With, with that I just want to. Clarify and I don't mean to interrupt. So if there's a reported incident, that's what you mean by made the referrals. Right, Got it.

Right. So anything prea related requires us to, to report it immediately. So in, in these cases, this is investigated by the Office of Internal Affairs. So we will do initial screening and it goes over to the Office of Internal Affairs.

There's a, there is no, at no time where we don't take this seriously, where this is referred to if it meets the elements of a crime, where it's referred to the district's attorney's office for prosecution. So some of the databases that we're looking at, the 2022, that's a new database.

I will definitely get the follow up on the numbers that you're asking for. But in terms of moving forward on sexual assault and sexual violence, we have a standing zero tolerance. So those are referred for investigation and referred for prosecution when they meet the elements of crime.

And I think that the reason why I want to see this is because under the sexual misconduct definition that CDCR uses, it's very broad, that includes assault and battery. And so what I'm interested in is getting better understanding in those categories of misconduct versus violence. Obviously, harassment is incredibly serious as well.

But we look at misconduct and violence, what's being referred for outside prosecution.

Understood.

Okay, that's great. I appreciate that. The other question that I have for you is since the tracking system has gone in, did you anticipate larger numbers coming back? I'm just getting your own take. Anecdotally, what did you expect versus what the numbers are coming out now in reality?

Right. So based on the pre allegations and litigation we've been exposed to and, and working through, I initially thought that we would have greater numbers. This, this I think represents the actual cases.

I want, I want to point out at this time that if what has come to light in the last 12 to 15 months in terms of sexual assault and allegations, that there are cases that are still pending, under investigation.

So without going into litigation and where we stand with that, you might not necessarily see those outcomes until 2025.

Okay. But on the tracking, and again, I appreciate going through this. So we have better understanding. So if I'm incarcerated within a women's facility and I report sexual misconduct, does it automatically go onto the tracker or when does it hit the tracker or is there an investigation prior to hitting the tracker?

When the case is referred to our office of internal affairs and to our central screening? Yes, it goes into the tracker.

And, and I know this is going to be an anecdotal answer, and I apologize about this. Is that series of weeks? Is that a series of days? How would you describe that?

That should go into the tracker immediately.

Okay. All right.

And there's a process where the case is accepted and it goes through a series of steps. If you want us to follow up and give you that, we can do that. Thank you so much. I think that would be. It would give you the picture.

Would appreciate that you had mentioned how incarcerated folks would be able to report and how that's Reported. Can you walk us through the top three ways incarcerated individuals are reporting out within the women's facilities?

I will have to pull you those numbers. They, they are reporting through our Office of Ombudsman.

Okay.

They do report through the Office of Inspector General. They have reported directly to my prea compliance team on grounds they can report third party, they can direct dial and that'll go to the OIG's office. So those are areas where we're seeing reporting.

Okay. And for you and in this role, what does long term success look like?

Long term success success looks like a zero. I know that, you know, that's through training and like I said, and enhance training to change culture, change thoughts.

I, I know we're always going to have some sort of allegations of sorts, but I want to mention that we have body worn camera that we have, you know, put into play in both of our women's facilities.

We have. Now do those, are those on constantly or turned on by the officer?

The officer, when they have, when they come on their shift and they're working, they do turn on the cameras.

We have, I know that in our sexual prevention working group, our sex assault prevention working group that one of one of the prisons didn't have the same standard and we have modified our policy and within 60 days we'll be implementing that. Those are on full time. That was a recommendation that came out of our report.

So just to confirm. So within all women's facilities, universal when, I don't want to oversimplify, when an officer clocks in essentially and is on duty, the hitting the button and it's recording. When they go off on break, I would assume they pause it. Right. Can you just walk us through what that would look like?

Yeah. So they do when they enter the yard and they have interaction with the incarcerated population, they start their shift. They do turn on their cameras if they have to use a restroom or if there's a confidential.

Medical setting or something that's confidential. That is we're not privy to. Then then the camera will be off. Any other time interruption. Would you like to speak?

Yes.

So I just wanted to say that they speak into the camera and let the camera know while the why the camera is going off so that it's known. And then when they reactivate they say turn the camera back on. Just completed.

Right. And so just to go back to the. The original rollout was that there were institutions under our Armstrong injunction that said that we would have them full time usage like I'm talking about now and I think you referenced hey, can they turn them off and on?

There was more leeway before, but as an agency, we discovered that it was necessary to have them on full time and in the women's prisons. Yes. That is a new policy.

Universal.

Yes,

Got it. And the reason why I ask that is I'm the only non police officer in my family and just knowing on cameras that are on, for example, my cousin's uniform, for example, turn it off if they're at lunch. Right. Some agencies turn it on when there may be a potential for an altercation, et cetera.

So there is no standard between the departments, which is why I'm curious about what that looks like, how. And again, Madam Associate Director, I appreciate your patience with the questions. I think you can understand why there's concern, right? Absolutely.

And I also know that you are committed, this is your mission in your career to be able to bring culture change and candidly be able to protect those who are being taken advantage of. That's why we spend, when we spend the time having these questions with you. Just because I know this is. You're passionate about this issue and it's of deep concern.

Right. Have I on the body worn cameras? That was actually one of the recommendations, like I said, out of the sex assault prevention working group. Like I have been familiar in community with law enforcement and body worn cameras. I was adamant that the individuals working in our prisons have body worn cameras on.

And I know that we're talking about sex assault prevention, but it's a couple things. Right. Because it's also a, a protection for the individual wearing them.. For the community that they work in. And it is actual driving force to change the culture and it's accountability.

And I think that any time that we do this work and you comment on a passion is authenticity and being purposeful in leadership and setting the standard of what's acceptable and what's not.

Transparency is the best sunlight. Absolutely. And accountability is what I think we all want, especially when we have the public's trust. So I appreciate that. And you're absolutely right. It also protects those who are sworn to serve. Right. And it's very clear if there is a recording who said what and when or what actions transpired. Correct? Yes.

All right. I'd like to be able to see, Associate Director Eaton, any other items that you'd like to be able to follow up on. In regards to my line of questioning, the floor is yours.

No, I apologize. I just wanted it to be on the record that when, when staff do deactivate the cameras that they have to justify that, the, the deactivation and then the reactivation.

I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Social Director Ken, is there any other additional items? Obviously, we'll be following up up with agency, but any additional items that you'd like to be able to provide on the line of questioning?

No, I just. Just to piggyback off what you had said and, and taking over this mission and all the challenges, I am probably one of the most committed people to sit in the seat in many, many years for the women's mission. I think that everyone, even stakeholders, I bring those partnerships at the table.

And we have been creating safer spaces, spaces where both women and staff can come forward and have dialogue for needed change. In my role, we've seen tremendous change already just within the culture.

My leadership teams are embracing the change, the training, and I think that as we move forward in this path, the things that we see are going to be exponential and change for our staff and our population. And I'm excited for it. I just want to share that.

Thank you so much, Associate Director. So we'll just talk about some next steps and I'm going to see if there's any additional comments or questions from the Committee.

What we're going to do is Lisa Chin from Rules Committee will be following up with agency to be able to have a further dialogue on those additional questions and data points and may want to have another conversation with you one on one. Yeah, that works for you. So I do appreciate that.

I'd like to be able to turn to the Committee to be able to see if there's any additional questions, comments or concerns that would like to be advanced before we go to our public forum portion hearing. Seeing none again. To both Associate directors, thank you so much.

Thank you for the patience for the line of questioning as well. We're going to open it up to those who would like to be able to speak here today. We're going to start with those who would like to be able to speak in support. A couple items we'd love to respectfully request. First and last name.

If you're with an organization, if you could please state that we're going to respectfully request that you keep your comments to 30 seconds. We welcome you to Committee. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here.

Good afternoon. Thank you. My name is Wajuba McDuffy. I represent the Anti Recidivism Coalition and we are in full support for Mr. Kent and Mrs. Eaton.

Thank you so much, Mr. McDuffy. Appreciate you. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Good afternoon. My name is Christopher Bryson. I'm a life coach for San Quentin Rehabilitation center with the Anti Recidivism Coalition and isopropyl support. Both directors, Kent and Eden, thank you so much for being here.

We're grateful for your words. Good afternoon.

How you doing today? My name is Denzel Nonsuch. I'm a life coach with the Anti Recidivism Coalition and I'm here today in support of both directors.

Thank you so much for your words today. Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Ricardo London. I'm a staff Member from the Anti Recitative Coalition. I'm here in support of both the directors here.

Like beam got the king's hat going. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. My name is Terrence Harris. I'm a life coach at CSP Sacramento with the Anti Recidivism Coalition and I'm in support of both.

Thank you so much, Mr. Harris. Very grateful for you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Sergio Maldonado. I'm a Member of the Anti Recidivism Coalition. I'm in full support of Kennedy.

Hey. Good afternoon. Welcome. Good afternoon. My name is Sam Brisiago and I'm. A Member of the Anti Recidivism Coalition and I have full support of Eaton and. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And canvas can't. No. All right. Great job. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Very grateful for you.

Hi. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. My name is Joey Triaga and I am a Member of the Anti Residual Coalition. I am support of both directors.

Appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. It's good to see you. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Good afternoon. My name is Hugo Sanchez and I'm an incredible messenger at Pine Grove with the Anti Recidivism Coalition. I'm full support of Mrs. Kent and Mr. Eaton. Thank you.

Thank you for your work. Appreciate you being here. Good afternoon. Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Willie Woods. I'm a Life Coach for CSP's Anti Recidivism Coalition and I'm in full support of Ms. Eden and Ms. Keaton. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Woods. Very grateful for you. Hi. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Peace, power and positivity. My name is Shawn Gage. I'm a hope and redemption team life coach. I want to say I'm a recipient. We are all the recipients of second chances. We believe in second chances and cultivating culture. So I support the dynamic duo.

Hey, thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it. Hi. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Ryan Souza on behalf of Amity foundation, an inside prison cognitive behavioral treatment provider and Impact Justice, a creative think tank that really tries to transform the prison system. Both of these organizations have had the opportunity to work with Ms. Cant and are fully supportive of her getting confirmed today. She is stellar in her role.

Her honesty, her willingness to challenge the situation system, really transform how organizations work with her and just represents when, you know, traditionally CDCR could be building a wall, she's building doors. And I think it just goes to who she is about really changing the system and not afraid to really push back. And personally, I've worked with Mr. Eaton

in the past and he has been again, a representation of what we want to see in the system in terms of not being afraid to talk about things that might be sensitive, not being afraid to really show that honest truth and really continue again to push the system forward in a positive way.

So just thank you and congratulations. Hopefully you guys get confirmed.

Thank you for your words. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. We're going to do a final call for any individual who would like to be able to come forward and speak in support of either or both Associate directors. We're looking for final call. Final call. For those in support.

Seeing no one rise, we're now going to do those who may be opposed. Those who would like to speak in opposition, if you could please come forward to the podium. We're going to do a final call for those who. Who may be in opposition, if you could please step forward.

Seeing no one rise, we're going to bring back the Committee to see if there's any discussion. Yes, please.

I would move the appointments of both our candidates and that we advance them to the Senate Floor. Thank you so much.

We have a motion by Senator Laird to advance Ms. Kent and Mr. Eaton to the Senate Floor. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

Mcguire, aye. Mcguire, aye. Grove. Gonzalez, aye. Gonzalez, aye. Jones, aye. Jones, aye. Laird. Laird. I4 to 040 vote.

Congratulations. Next stop will be the Senate Floor. Thank you so much. Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Congrats. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're grateful to both Associate Directors. We also want to take a moment. To each and every one of you who are here today, thank you so much for your testimony.

It means the world to us. What's going to happen next is that we're going to be going into Executive session. We're going to give it a few minutes. Folks can mingle. We're going to ask in two minutes to be able to clear the room for Executive session. Feel free to mingle and offer congratulations to Ms. Kent and Mr. Eaton. Two minute recess. Thank you so much. And again, congratulations.