AB 14

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law prescribes various penalties for criminal offenses. This bill would state legislative findings and declarations regarding criminal sentencing laws and policies. This bill would create the California Public Safety Commission, chaired by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, and comprised as specified, to develop and implement a new sentencing system, that would develop rules for sentences imposed for infractions, misdemeanors, alternate felonies or misdemeanors, and felonies, and rules for parole. The commission also would be required to make recommendations to the Legislature regarding criminal laws established by voter initiative, prepare correctional population projections for the sentencing system, serve as a resource for sentencing policy, develop information systems to track criminal cases entering the courts, assemble information on the effectiveness of sentences imposed, and investigate the existence of discrimination or inequities in the sentencing and corrections systems, as specified. Any rules promulgated by the commission would take effect on January 1 of the year following the year that the commission presents the rules to the Legislature, if the Legislature does not reject the rules by a statute that is passed by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature and signed by the Governor. Any rule that is rejected by the Legislature would not take effect. This bill would amend various sections of the codes that currently impose a sentence for a crime by providing that crime would be punishable, alternatively, on or after the operative date of any applicable sentencing rules proposed by the commission, as provided in those rules. Because the bill would authorize a state agency to change the punishment for several crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law establishes certain values for determining if theft or certain other property crimes are punishable as felonies or not. Existing law provides that for many of these crimes, the threshold is $400, while the thresholds for certain other crimes are $100, $200, and $1,000, as specified. This bill would increase those thresholds uniformly, for example, by increasing the $400 threshold to $950, except for certain provisions relating to grand theft, for which the threshold would be increased to $2,500. Existing law establishes various offenses punishable as felonies or misdemeanors. This bill would provide that specified offenses, including certain offenses related to drugs and theft, committed on or after the date the bill becomes operative shall only be punished as misdemeanors, subject to any operative sentencing rule of the sentencing commission, as specified. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor or a felony to take or drive another person's vehicle without the owner's consent, as specified. This bill would make it a misdemeanor or a felony if the value of the car is more than $2,500 and a misdemeanor if the value of the car is not more than $2,500. By increasing local incarceration costs, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Because this bill would change the definitions of various crimes, it would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides a system of prisons under the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to house inmates committed to state prison for felonies. This bill would authorize the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to offer a program under which inmates committed to state prison may be allowed to participate in a voluntary alternative custody program in lieu of confinement in state prison. The bill would define an alternative custody program to include confinement to a residential home, a residential drug or treatment program, or a transitional care facility during the hours designated by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The bill would, among other things, provide inmate eligibility criteria, authorize the secretary to prescribe rules and regulations for the program, including making an unauthorized departure or failure to return as required a crime, impose certain inmate participation requirements, and authorize certain verification procedures. Existing law provides for a 6-month reduction in a prisoner's term of confinement for every 6 months of full-time performance by the prisoner in a qualified work, training, or education program, as specified. Existing law provides that for every 6 days served in a specified local detention center following an arrest and prior to the imposition of a prison sentence for a felony conviction, 2 days shall be deducted from his or her period of confinement, as specified. This bill would instead provide that certain prisoners shall earn one day of credit for every one day served either in the state prison or in a local facility prior to delivery to the state prison. This bill would provide for up to 6 weeks of additional credit for the successful completion of certain programs offered by the department, as specified. This bill would also expand an existing program for extra time credits for inmates assigned to conservation camps to apply to inmates who are assigned to correctional institutions as inmate firefighters and to inmates who have completed the training for either of those assignments, as specified. This bill would also revise the time credits for certain prisoners confined or committed to a county jail or other specified facilities, as provided. This bill would also provide criteria for the denial and loss of these credits, and would make various conforming and technical changes. Existing law establishes provisions authorizing the department to oversee programs for the purposes of reducing parolee recidivism. This bill would authorize each county to establish a Community Corrections Performance Incentives Fund (CCPIF) and would authorize the state to annually allocate money into a State Corrections Performance Incentives Fund to be used for certain purposes relating to improving local probation supervision practices and capacities, as specified. This bill would require the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the Chief Probation Officers of California, and the Administrative Office of the Courts, to make various calculations relating to the costs of incarceration, probation failure rates, and estimated numbers of adult felony probationers who are successfully prevented from being sent to prison per county, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Finance, in consultation with other specified agencies, to annually calculate 5% of the savings to the state attributed to those counties that successfully reduce the number of adult felony probationers sent to prison, and the bill would authorize those savings to be used to provide high performance grants to county probation departments to reduce recidivism among adult felony probationers. This bill would also require each county using CCPIF funds to identify and track specific outcome-based measures, as specified, and report to the Administrative Office of the Courts on the effectiveness of the programs paid for by the CCPIF. This bill would require each county's community corrections programs to be developed and implemented by the probation department, as advised by a local Community Corrections Partnership. This bill would require specified local officials to serve as part of that Community Corrections Partnership. Because this bill would increase the duties for certain local officials, it would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires an inmate under the custody of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who has successfully completed an in prison drug treatment program, to be entered into a 150-day residential aftercare drug treatment program upon release from state prison, whenever possible, as specified. Existing law excludes from those drug treatment programs inmates who are currently serving or have served a prior indeterminate sentence or who have been sentenced for a violent felony, a serious felony, or a crime requiring registration as a sex offender. This bill would remove serious felonies from the above exclusion, and would thereby make inmates serving sentences for serious felonies eligible for residential aftercare drug treatment programs who are not otherwise precluded. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to release a prisoner on a specified period of parole after the expiration of a specified term of imprisonment. Under existing law, the department is authorized to return a parolee to prison if the Board of Parole Hearings determines that the parolee violated the terms of his or her parole, as specified. This bill would prohibit the department from returning certain parolees to prison, placing a parole hold on the parolee, or reporting the parolee to the Board of Parole Hearings for a violation of parole, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish certain pilot programs to assist parolees in the successful reintegration of those parolees into the community. This bill would require the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish a parole reentry accountability program for parolees who have been sentenced to a determinate term of imprisonment. The bill would require the department to employ a parole violation decisionmaking instrument to determine the most appropriate sanctions for parolees who violate their parole conditions. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations that make appropriate changes in policies and procedures to reflect the bill's intent. The bill would also authorize the department to refer these parolees, if they have a history of substance abuse or mental illness and violate their parole conditions, to a reentry court program. The bill would require the secretary, subject to available funding, to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Administrative Office of the Courts for the purpose of the establishment and operation of parolee reentry programs, as specified. The bill would require the Judicial Council, in collaboration with the department, to design and perform an evaluation of the program to assess its effectiveness in reducing recidivism among parolees and reducing parole revocations. The bill would also require the Judicial Council, in collaboration with the department, to submit a final report of its findings to the Legislature and the Governor, as specified. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 19, 2008. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared by the Governor by proclamation issued on December 19, 2008, pursuant to the California Constitution.