AB 223

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law proscribes the crime of human trafficking, as defined. A person who causes, induces, or persuades, or attempts to cause, induce, or persuade, a person who is a minor at the time of commission of the offense to engage in a commercial sex act, with the intent to effect or maintain a violation of any of specified sex offenses, is guilty of human trafficking. Existing law also proscribes the crime of prostitution. Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections to provide statewide leadership, coordination, and technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and partnerships in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice system. Existing law authorizes the County of Alameda to create a pilot project, contingent upon local funding, for the purposes of developing a comprehensive, replicative, multidisciplinary model to address the needs and effective treatment of commercially sexually exploited minors, as specified. Existing law establishes the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Program, which is administered by the State Department of Social Services in order to adequately serve children who have been sexually exploited, and requires the department, in consultation with the County Welfare Directors Association of California, to develop an allocation methodology to distribute funding to counties that elect to participate in the program. This bill would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to establish a pilot project in each of the Counties of Alameda, Sacramento, and San Joaquin, if the county elects to participate in the pilot project. The bill would authorize each participating county to determine whether that county's probation department or child welfare agency, or both, would create and operate a program funded by the pilot project. The bill would require a program funded by the pilot project to provide services to youth within that county's jurisdiction in order to address the need for services relating to the commercial sexual exploitation of youth. The bill would state that the purpose of the pilot project is to test a service model, as specified, that would produce improved outcomes for youth victims of human trafficking. The bill would require the programs created by the pilot project that receive funding pursuant to these provisions to be licensed by the State Department of Social Services. The bill would make the funding for the pilot projects established pursuant to this authority contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act and would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to administer those funds. The bill would also require a county that elects to participate in the pilot project and establishes a program pursuant to these provisions to conduct at least one evaluation of the program's impact and effectiveness and to submit that evaluation to the board and the Legislature no later than January 1, 2024. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2025.