BILL ANALYSIS Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair 1062 (Strickland) Hearing Date: 05/27/2010 Amended: 05/25/2010 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety 7-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: SB 1062 is the public safety omnibus bill of non-controversial changes to statute that are primarily technical and corrective. This bill also changes procedures for county probation departments with regard to the State Authorized Risk Assessment Tool for Sex Offenders (SARATSO), and requirements on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to maintain additional information. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund State mandate: probation Potentially significant reimbursable costs General Technical/clarifying code Minor cost reduction from streamlining tasks/code General _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. Existing law requires probation departments to do a SARATSO assessment on every eligible person for whom it prepares a probation report. This bill would require probation departments to perform an assessment on eligible persons whether or not it prepares a probation report on that person, and would require that the assessment be done prior to the person's sentencing. By requiring additional SARATSO assessments by probation departments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This mandate would be prospective, and the extent of the expense to county probation departments for specifically administering a SARATSO to eligible persons for whom a report will not be prepared is unknown. This bill also expands the requirement that the DOJ maintain files of existing information to include the Department of Mental Health (DMH) and probation departments. This bill would require DMH and probation departments, in addition to the agencies already subject to the requirement, to provide new information to DOJ upon request regarding high risk sex offenders. Law enforcement agencies generally have broad authority to share information, and do share information with DOJ. By creating a new mandate, however, the state could be required to reimburse county probation departments for tasks they are already completing without a mandate. Additionally, requiring DOJ to maintain additional information would likely result in additional requests to county probation to share the information. Existing law requires DOJ to provide a summary profile of a sexual habitual offender to each law enforcement agency when an individual registers in, or moves to, the area in which the law enforcement agency is located. This bill would delete this requirement Page 2 SB 1062 (Strickland) and instead require DOJ to provide a bulletin to law enforcement agencies on each high risk sex offender via the California Sex Offender Registry and the California Law Enforcement Web (CLEW). This change would likely result in minor administrative savings to DOJ.