Private detention facilities: canteens.

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Private Detention Facilities: Canteen Prices

This law sets rules about how much private detention facilities can charge for items sold in their canteens.

What This Bill Does

• Sets a rule that private detention facilities cannot sell items in their canteens at more than a 35% markup over what they paid the seller.
• Defines a commissary as a place where inmates buy personal items like food and hygiene products.
• Applies to private, for-profit companies running detention centers under contract with government agencies.

Who It Names or Affects

• Private companies that run detention facilities
• Government entities that contract with these private companies

Terms To Know

Commissary

A place in a prison or jail where inmates can buy personal items.

Markup

The amount added to the cost price of an item to cover overhead and profit when it is sold.

Limits and Unknowns

• Does not specify what happens if a private facility breaks this rule.
• Only applies to facilities operating under contract with government entities, not all detention centers.

Official Summary Text

SB 941, as introduced, Padilla.
Private detention facilities: canteens.
Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to maintain a canteen at its active facilities, and until January 1, 2028, prohibits the sale prices of the articles offered for sale in a canteen from exceeding a 35% markup above the price of the articles paid to the vendors. Existing law, commencing on January 1, 2028, requires the sale amounts of the articles to be offered for sale to be fixed by the secretary at amounts that will render each canteen self-supporting.
This bill would prohibit the sale price of an article offered for sale in a commissary, as defined, at a private detention facility, defined as a detention facility that is operated by a private, nongovernmental, for-profit entity, and operating pursuant to a contract or agreement with a governmental entity, from exceeding a 35% markup above the amount paid to
a vendor for that article.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF