SB 498

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law requires the Department of Justice to collect specified criminal justice information from local law enforcement agencies and prepare an annual report presenting the data to the Governor and certain public officials. Existing law requires this report to include the annual number of fitness hearings held in the juvenile court and the annual number of minors whose cases were filed directly in adult criminal court, as well as the outcomes of those proceedings, cross-referenced with the age, gender, ethnicity, and offense of the minors subject to these court actions. Existing law also requires the department to include in the report information regarding certain administrative actions taken by law enforcement, prosecutorial, judicial, penal, and correctional agencies in dealing with minors who are the subject of a petition or hearing in the juvenile court to transfer their cases to adult criminal court or whose cases were directly filed or otherwise initiated in adult criminal court. This bill would require the annual report to include both statewide and county level information, and would expand the scope and level of detail in the information reported, by requiring, among other things, information about the county of referral, and the age at the time of referral. The bill would also require the department to post on its Internet Web site additional information, including the number of people under 21 years of age at the time of their offense who were sentenced to the state prison, and, beginning July 1, 2017, all data that was compiled to prepare the report provided to the Governor and other public officials, as specified. The bill would require the department to post the information in a format that allows a user to query and download the information for the most recent reporting year and for prior years or reporting cycles, as specified, beginning July 1, 2018, for the preceding calendar year. The bill would also provide that the information regarding certain administrative actions regarding juvenile offenders whose cases were transferred to, or directly filed or originated in, criminal court would be reported beginning with the report due on July 1, 2017, as specified, thereby suspending the requirement to make that report for one year.