BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 420 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 420 (Davis) As Amended August 22, 2011 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |45-32|(June 1, 2011) |SENATE: |23-14|(August 30, | | | | | | |2011) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: E. & R. SUMMARY : Requests the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC), when adjusting district boundaries for state Legislature, Congress, and the Board of Equalization (BOE), to deem an incarcerated person as residing at his or her last known residence, rather than the institution of his or her incarceration. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), not sooner than April 1, 2020, and not later than July 1, 2020, to furnish to the CRC information regarding the last known residence of each inmate incarcerated in a state adult correctional facility, except an inmate whose last known residence is outside California. Requires CDCR, in 2030 and in each year ending in the number zero thereafter, to provide this information to the CRC not sooner than the decennial Census Day and not later than 90 days thereafter. 2)Requires the information furnished by the CDCR to include, for each inmate, a unique identifier, other than the inmate's name or CDCR number, and last known address information that is sufficiently specific to determine the congressional, State Senatorial, State Assembly, or BOE district in which the inmate's last known residence is located. Provides that the information may include, but not be limited to, ZIP Code information or street address information from which a ZIP Code can be derived. 3)Requests the CRC to deem each incarcerated person as residing at his or her last known residence, rather than at the institution of his or her incarceration, and to use the information furnished pursuant to this bill in carrying out its redistricting responsibilities. 4)Specifies that an inmate's last known residence, for the purposes of this bill, is the address at which the inmate was last AB 420 Page 2 domiciled prior to his or her current term of incarceration, as determined from court records of the county in which the inmate was sentenced. The Senate amendments : 1)Change the date by which CDCR is required to furnish information about the last known residence of inmates from December 31, 2019, to not sooner than April 1, 2010, and not later than July 1, 2020. Require this information to be provided not sooner than Census day and not later than 90 days thereafter in 2030 and each year ending in the number zero thereafter. 2)Specify that, for the purposes of this bill, an inmate incarcerated in a state adult correctional facility includes an inmate who has been transferred to a facility outside of California to complete his or her term of incarceration. 3)Provides that if CDCR's Statewide Offender Management System (SOMS), which is currently under development, is not fully operational by April 2020, CDCR will provide address information to the CRC in a manner that is as specific as feasible under its existing database program. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar to the version approved by the Senate. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, CDCR is in the process of implementing Statewide Offender Management System (SOMS), which is expected to be fully operational by 2018 with a central database that includes address information at the point of inmate reception and pre-release. If SOMS is completed before April 2020 as currently scheduled, the costs for CDCR to provide the resident information to the CRC will be minimal. If SOMS is not completed before April 2020, this bill would require CDCR to provide address information in any manner feasible under its existing database program, which eliminates any fiscal concerns related to CDCR. COMMENTS : According to the author, "California law (Elections Code Section 2025) states that incarcerated individuals remain legal residents in their home communities, and are not legal residents of the places where they are confined. But for the purposes of redistricting, the State relies on data from the Census Bureau that counts incarcerated individuals at their prisons, and not at home AB 420 Page 3 (or their last known residence). The result is a dilution of the voting strength of African-American and Latino communities and a violation of the one person, one vote principle." The policy of the United States Census Bureau (Bureau) for counting people in correctional facilities on Census Day is that those individuals should be counted at the facility of incarceration. This is true for adults and juveniles, and is true for people who are incarcerated in federal prisons or detention centers, state prisons, and local jails and confinement facilities. Because the state uses population data from the Bureau for redistricting purposes, individuals who are incarcerated in California traditionally have been counted at the place of incarceration when district lines are drawn for the state Legislature, Congress, and the BOE. Because districts at the local level tend to have much smaller populations than state legislative districts, some local jurisdictions in California do not include the incarcerated population when drawing district boundaries. According to information from the Prison Policy Initiative, 10 California counties have chosen to remove the prison population from the census count before drawing county supervisorial districts. Proposition 11, which was approved by the voters at the 2008 statewide general election, created the CRC, and gave it the responsibility for establishing district lines for the Assembly, Senate, and BOE. Proposition 20, which was approved by the voters at the 2010 statewide general election, gave the CRC the responsibility for establishing lines for California's congressional districts. Because Propositions 11 and 20 established the CRC in the Constitution, and gave it the independent authority to draw district lines, it is unclear whether the Legislature can require the CRC to adjust census figures for redistricting purposes. In recognition of this fact, this bill does not require the CRC to adjust census figures, but rather requests that it do so. Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion of this bill. Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN: 0002062 AB 420 Page 4