AB 17

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, if Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, provides that, except for persons with a prior or current felony conviction for serious or violent felony, persons required to register as sex offenders, or persons convicted of a crime as part of a sentence enhancement, as specified, a felony punishable pursuant to specified provisions where the term is not specified in the underlying offense shall be punishable by a term of imprisonment is a county in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years and a felony punishable by a term of imprisonment described in the underlying offense shall be punishable by imprisonment in a county jail. Those persons excepted from this requirement are subject to imprisonment in the state prison. This bill would additionally require persons with a current or prior felony conviction in another jurisdiction for an offense that has all of the elements of a serious or violent felony, as specified, to serve the term of imprisonment in the state prison. (2) Existing law provides that certain specified felonies, including agreeing, consenting, or offering to unlawfully sell, furnish, transport, or administer a specified controlled substance, or "gassing" a peace officer are punishable by incarceration in state prison. If Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, certain of those felonies shall instead be punishable by incarceration in county jail. This bill would make various technical and conforming changes to provisions related to the incarceration of persons for felony convictions in county jail. The bill would make certain felonies, including agreeing, consenting, or offering to unlawfully sell, furnish, transport, or administer a specified controlled substance, or "gassing" a peace officer punishable by incarceration in county jail pursuant to Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 instead punishable by incarceration in state prison. (3) Existing law provides for the enhancement of prison terms for new offenses because of prior prison terms, as specified. If Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, a judge, when imposing a sentence pursuant to these provisions, may order the defendant to serve a term in a county jail for a period not to exceed the maximum possible term of confinement or may impose a sentence that includes a period of county jail time and a period of mandatory probation not to exceed the maximum possible sentence. This bill would provide that a term imposed under the above-referenced provision, wherein a portion of the term is suspended by the court to allow postrelease supervision, shall qualify as a prior county jail term for the purposes of a specified enhancement, and make conforming changes. (4) Existing law provides that, except as specified, every felony is punishable by imprisonment in any of the state prisons for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years. If Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, a felony punishable pursuant to specified provisions where the term is not specified in the underlying offense shall be punishable by a term of imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, or 2 or 3 years and where the term is specified for the term described in the underlying offense. Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 requires that the punishment for certain felonies be served in state prison. This bill would place specified parameters on the imposition of sentences under the provisions added by Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011. The bill would provide that when imposing a sentence pursuant to the above-referenced provisions, the court may commit the defendant for term served in custody, as specified, or for a term as determined in accordance with the applicable sentencing law but suspend execution of a concluding portion of the term selected in the court's discretion, during which time the defendant shall be supervised by the county probation officer, as specified. (5) Existing law provides that the moneys in the District Attorney and Public Defender Account shall be used exclusively to fund costs associated with revocation proceedings involving persons subject to state parole and the Postrelease Community Supervision Act of 2011. Existing law requires that the moneys be allocated equally by the county or city and county to the district attorney's office and the county public defender's office. This bill would require that where no public defender's office is established, the moneys be allocated to the county for distribution for the same purpose. (6) Existing law, if Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, applies certain provisions relating to the denial of time credits to persons confined in local facilities pursuant to provisions added by Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 providing for the incarceration of felons in local facilities, as specified. This bill would repeal the amendments made by Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011, restore prior law, and instead subject these felons to other credit provisions applicable to persons confined in a county jail, industrial farm, or road camp, or a city jail, industrial farm, or road camp, as specified. The bill would provide that no credits may be earned for periods of flash incarceration, as specified. The bill would provide that any inmate sentenced to county jail assigned to a conservation camp who is eligible to earn one day of credit for every one day of incarceration shall instead earn 2 days of credit for every one day of service and make related changes. (7) Existing law provides that, except as specified, a prisoner sentenced to state prison under specified provisions, for whom the sentence is executed shall have one day deducted from his or her period of confinement for every day he or she served in a county jail, city jail, industrial farm, or road camp from the date of arrest until state prison credits are applicable to the prisoner. This bill would delete the above-referenced provisions, thereby making other time credit provisions applicable to prisoners confined in or committed to specified local facilities applicable to the above-referenced prisoners. (8) Existing law, if Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, provides that, except as specified, when specified persons who were not imprisoned for committing a violent felony, as defined, who have been released on parole from the state prison, and who have been on parole continuously for 6 months since release from confinement, within 30 days, shall be discharged from parole. This bill would additionally make the above provision related to discharge from parole inapplicable to persons who were imprisoned for committing a serious felony or who are required to register as a sex offender, as specified. (9) Existing law, if Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, subjects certain persons released from state prison to the jurisdiction of and parole supervision by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as specified. This bill would provide that persons required to register as sex offenders and persons subject to life-time parole, as specified, who are released from state prison shall be subject to the jurisdiction of, and parole supervision by, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for a period of parole up to 3 years or the parole term the person was subject to at the time of the commission of the offense. The bill would make other conforming and related changes regarding the parole periods, revocations, search and seizure requirements, and the release of high-risk parolees. (10) Existing law, if Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, makes felons subject to postrelease supervision as established by the Postrelease Community Supervision Act of 2011 eligible to participate in reentry court programs, as specified, and would authorize counties to contract with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in order to obtain day treatment and crisis care services for inmates with mental health problems who are released on postrelease community supervision. This bill would instead authorize counties to contract with the department to obtain correctional clinical services. The bill would make changes to the postrelease community supervision agreement, require persons placed on postrelease supervision to be subject to search and seizure, and make other related changes regarding postrelease supervision sanctions, and revocations. The bill would require a supervising agency, upon determining that a person subject to postrelease supervision no longer permanently resides within its jurisdiction, where a change in residence was either approved or did not violate the terms and conditions of postrelease supervision, to transmit, within 2 weeks, the prison release packet to the designated supervising agency in the county in which the person permanently resides. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (11) Existing law provides that upon agreement with the sheriff or director of the county department of corrections, a board of supervisors may enter into a contract with other public agencies to provide housing for inmates sentenced to county jail in community correction facilities, as specified. This bill would authorize, upon agreement with the sheriff or director of the county department of corrections, a board of supervisors to enter into a contract with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to house inmates who are within 60 days or less of release from the state prison to a county jail facility for the purpose of reentry and community transition purposes. The bill would provide that when housed in county facilities, inmates shall be under the legal custody and jurisdiction of local county facilities and not under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (12) Existing law provides that, except as specified, an inmate who is released on parole or postrelease supervision shall be returned to the county that was the last legal residence of the inmate prior to his or her incarceration. Existing law requires that specified information be released by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to local law enforcement agencies regarding a paroled inmate or inmate placed on postrelease supervision. Existing law provides that, except as specified, the department shall be the agency primarily responsible for, and shall have control over, the program, resources, and staff implementing the Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS) and, if Chapter 15 of the Statutes of 2011 becomes operative, requires county agencies supervising inmates released to postrelease supervision to provide any information requested by the department to ensure the availability of accurate information regarding inmates released from state prison, as specified. This bill would additionally require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to submit, via electronic transfer, to the Department of Justice data to be included in the supervised released file of the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) so that law enforcement can be advised through CLETS of all persons on postrelease community supervision and the county agency designated to provide supervision. (13) The Budget Act of 2011 reduced the amount appropriated, $95,254,000, for support of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation by $77,406,000 to reflect the portion of realignment savings to be achieved through the reduction or elimination of contracts with private entities for instate housing of state inmates. This bill would instead reduce the amount appropriated by $54,200,000 for those purposes. (14) Existing law requires 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 certain calculations, including, among others, the cost to the state to incarcerate in prison and supervise on parole a probationer sent to prison and the statewide probation failure rate. This bill would additionally require, except for the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the above-referenced entities to develop a revised formula for the California Community Corrections Performance Incentives Act of 2009 that takes into consideration the significant changes to the eligibility of some felony probationers for revocation to the state prison resulting from the implementation of the 2011 public safety realignment. (15) This bill would include additional changes proposed by SB 9 and SB 576 contingent on the enactment of those bills. (16) This bill would appropriate $1,000 to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the purpose of state operations. (17) The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill. (18) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions. (19) The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and to call the Legislature into special session for that purpose. Governor Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation declaring a fiscal emergency, and calling a special session for this purpose, on December 6, 2010. Governor Brown issued a proclamation on January 20, 2011, declaring and reaffirming that a fiscal emergency exists and stating that his proclamation supersedes the earlier proclamation for purposes of that constitutional provision. This bill would state that it addresses the fiscal emergency declared and reaffirmed by the Governor by proclamation issued on January 20, 2011, pursuant to the California Constitution.