ENGAGEMENT WITH CDCR Given our project’s focus on CDCR, our goal was to interview its administration and staff to understand how the agency plans for climate hazards. Despite our outreach efforts, as detailed below, we were unable to formally interview any CDCR staff. Figure 1 on the next page details a timeline of our engagement with CDCR.
RESEARCH REQUEST In early January 2023, we reached out to the agency’s Public Information Officer (PIO), who directed us to complete a research application through the agency’s Research Oversight Committee Administration Team (ROCAT). The PIO refused to speak with us about our research until we submitted the application. On January 30, 2023, we submitted a research application and included the following documents: 1. List of interview questions 2. Names of research group members 3. Letter of support from a faculty member 4. Letter from the UCLA Internal Review Board approving our project 5. Details of our methods for interviewing CDCR employees While we waited for our research application to be reviewed, we reached out to other CDCR staff, including the Assistant Secretary of Legislative Affairs, Assistant Secretary and Special Advisor–Office of Public and Employee Communications, Emergency Management Policy and Technical Advisor, and CDCR Secretary, the agency’s highestranking official, and received minimal response. We eventually connected with CDCR’s Acting Chief of Legislative Affairs. This staff member connected us with a Captain and Lieutenant from the agency’s Office of Correctional Safety, who both initially agreed to meet with us. Unfortunately, a business day before our scheduled meeting, we received a cancellation email and were directed to follow up with ROCAT. On February 22, 2023, we were asked to revise and resubmit our research application. The denial cited that our application had insufficient information about our plan to connect with CDCR staff, and was too short of a research timeline. Given our research timeline, we decided not to resubmit our application, which ultimately prohibited us from formally speaking to any CDCR staff.
