BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                AB 420
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        CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
        AB 420 (Davis)
        As Amended  August 22, 2011
        Majority vote
         
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        |ASSEMBLY:  |45-32|(June 1, 2011)  |SENATE: |23-14|(August 30,    |
        |           |     |                |        |     |2011)          |
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         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 








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          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 








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        (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 
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