BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 877
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 26, 2011
Counsel: Stella Choe
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Tom Ammiano, Chair
AB 877 (Skinner) - As Amended: March 25, 2011
SUMMARY : Expands existing provisions of law that allow for the
dismissal of non-felony motor vehicle offenses pending at the
time of a defendant's commitment to California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) or the Division of
Juvenile Facilities to also include persons sentenced to a
county jail for six months or more. Specifically, this bill :
1)Expands existing law relating to the dismissal of non-felony
motor vehicle offenses pending at the time of a defendant's
commitment to state prison to provide the same relief to
persons who are sentenced to a county jail for six months.
2)Exempts from prosecution non-felony offenses arising out of
the operation of a motor vehicle or a Vehicle Code violation
as a pedestrian against a person who has been incarcerated in
county jail for 90 or more days in any consecutive 12-month
period subsequent to the date of the offense or violation.
3)Prohibits the suspension, revocation, or refusal to issue or
renew a driver's license as a result of a pending infraction
occurring prior to the 90 or more days in any consecutive
12-month period of incarceration, or as a result of a notice
received by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for notice
of failure to appear in court after a written promise, or
failure to pay a fine if the offense that gave rise to the
notice occurred prior to incarceration.
4)Provides that non-felony offenses wherein the DMV is required
by law to immediately suspend or revoke a person's driver's
license upon notice of conviction of the offense will not be
dismissed.
5)Provides that non-felony offenses for specified
driving-under-the influence or specified reckless driving
offenses will not be dismissed.
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6)Requires DMV to remove from its records notice received by it
upon receipt of satisfactory evidence that a person was
incarcerated in any correctional institute for a period of 90
or more days in a consecutive 12-month period.
7)Allows eligible persons to request relief directly from the
DMV or the court.
8)Requires a court or the DMV that receives a valid request to
search its records for eligible pending matters and dispose of
each eligible non-felony offense pursuant to these provisions.
9)Requires the court, within 15 days of receipt of the request,
to notify the DMV of the request and DMV to remove from its
records any notice received by it from any county in
California.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Dismisses non-felony offenses arising out of the operation of
a motor vehicle, or a violation of the vehicle code as a
pedestrian, that are pending against a person at the time of
his or her commitment to the custody of the Director of
Corrections or the Department of the Youth Authority.
(Vehicle Code Section 41500.)
2)Prohibits, notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, the
suspension, revocation or refusal to issue or renew a driver's
license due to a pending non-felony offense occurring prior to
the time a person was committed to the custody of the Director
of Corrections or the Department of the Youth Authority, or as
a result of a notice received by the DMV from a court, a
magistrate, or a clerk of that court, if the offense that gave
rise to the notice occurred prior to the time a person was
committed to the custody of the Director of Corrections or the
Department of the Youth Authority. (Vehicle Code Section
41500.)
3)Allows the magistrate or clerk of a court to give notice to
the DMV of a person's violation of any section under the
Vehicle Code after that person's failure to appear in court
after a written promise to appear or if that person willfully
failed to pay a lawfully imposed fine for violation of the
Vehicle Code within the time authorized by the court to pay
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the fine. If thereafter the fine is fully paid, the magistrate
or the clerk of the court is to issue and file with the DMV a
certificate showing that the fine has been paid. (Vehicle
Code Section 40509.)
4)Requires the DMV to remove from its records any notice
received by it pursuant to Vehicle Code Section 40509, upon
receipt of satisfactory evidence that a person was committed
to the custody of the Secretary of the Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Division of Juvenile
Facilities after the offense that gave rise to the notice
occurred. (Vehicle Code Section 41500.)
5)Requires each county to establish a one-time infraction
amnesty program for fines and bail providing relief to
individuals who are financially unable to pay traffic bail or
fines with due dates prior to January 1, 2009, thereby
allowing courts and counties to resolve older delinquent cases
and focus limited resources on collecting on more recent
cases. Payment of a fine or bail under these amnesty programs
shall be accepted beginning January 1, 2012, and ending June
30, 2012. The Judicial Council shall adopt guidelines for the
amnesty program no later than November 1, 2011, and each
program shall be conducted in accordance with Judicial Council
guidelines. (Vehicle Code Section 42008.7.)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "One of the
surest ways to assist defendants in reintegration in society
is to assure that they are employable and able to care for
themselves and their families. A defendant who is unable to
obtain a driver's license is less employable, less likely to
pay child support, apt to drive despite the lack of a license,
unable to obtain insurance and even more troubling, inclined
to return to a life of crime - putting the greater community
at risk.
"Not having the ability to legally drive is a major barrier to
re-entry and becoming a productive member of society. Quite
frequently, upon their release, these individuals often are
arrested on a warrant relating to additional charges for the
failure to appear in court for a hearing on non-felony Vehicle
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Code charges scheduled for a date on which the individual was
in prison or jail and unable to appear.
"The proposed legislation will remove this barrier for over
12,000 individuals in San Francisco alone. The community at
large will be positively affected by this legislation. It is
estimated that it will allow well over 80,000 formally
incarcerated individuals to move toward successful reentry,
resulting in a decrease in crime and a savings in associated
court and incarceration costs.
"Furthermore, it is in the public interest that courts not be
burdened with the prosecution of minor cases where the
defendant has already served a long county jail
sentence/incarceration period regardless of ultimate
conviction, or term in prison and the additional prosecution
will neither substantially increase that term or facilitate
the public safety or rehabilitative purpose of our criminal
justice system.
"AB 877 will expand VC 41500 to cover anyone sentenced to a
county jail or jail alternative for a period of six or more
consecutive months. In addition, the bill will add a new
Vehicle Code section that will allow persons who have been
incarcerated for 90 or more days in any consecutive 12 month
period to have all vehicle code infractions (non-felony,
non-misdemeanor) dismissed."
2)Background : According to the background provided by the
author, "While current law provides relief to anyone who has
been committed to CDCR with outstanding Vehicle Code
violation, the code does not apply to persons sentenced to
county jail unless they are also or subsequently sentenced to
CDCR.
"The current procedure for obtaining relief requires that a
prisoner request assistance from CDCR staff via a CDC- GA 22.
CDCR in turn determines if the GA 22 request contains the
correct information and if so, fills out a CDC-1896 and
forwards it to the DMV. The problem with this is that many
prisoners are in housed in reception centers and/or are not in
a CDCR facility long enough for the process to take place.
Additionally, many of the violations which are covered by the
current request may not have been submitted to the DMV
pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 40509 at the time they
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receive the CDC-1869 and will therefore not be dismissed.
This will lead to an inability to obtain a California Driver's
License (CDL) for the newly released individual.
"Furthermore, Section 41500 does not apply to over the 80,000
county jail inmates currently incarcerated in California. In
San Francisco County alone, with an inmate population which
hovers around 2200 on any given day, many hundreds of inmates
each year request quasi 41500 relief directly through the
courts. This is achieved via a letter sent stating their date
of arrest, current charges and expected release date and
requesting either a dismissal in the interest of justice, or
credit for time served based on the time spent incarcerated.
The letter is signed by the Sheriff's staff verifying the
information and forward to the respective counties. In the
first 11 months of 2009, over 300 such requests were made
directly to the courts. About one third were granted some
sort of relief, a third were denied and the remainder ignored.
As with the State prisoners who were unable to get through
the process while in CDC, the two hundred San Francisco county
inmates whose requests were denied or ignored are now unable
to obtain a CDL and legally drive. (The potential number of
affected county jail inmates throughout the state could be
well over 12,000).
"The proposed amendments to Section 41500 would address these
issues by extending present Section 41500 relief to inmates
sentenced to six months or more in the county jail and
allowing individuals to request relief directly from the
courts. Section 41500.5 would extend partial Section 41500
relief to county jail inmate removing one of the number one
barriers to successful reentry.
"Many inmates/prisoners serving time often face other charges or
proceedings when his or her term of incarceration is
completed. These are sometimes referred to as 'detainers' or
'holds.' They can render the incarcerated's final date of
release into the community uncertain, often adversely affect
his security classification thereby preventing his
participation in various programs otherwise available to other
inmates/prisoners in the same facility and can negatively
affect his probation and parole periods as well as his reentry
into society. The policy of providing relief from such
detainers is reflected not only in Vehicle Code section 41500,
which is the subject of this amendment, but also in Penal Code
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section 858.5 (misdemeanors serving sentence-pending
misdemeanor Vehicle Code violation in another county); Penal
Code section 1203.2a (revocation of probation on second
conviction-time limit); Penal Code section 1381 (time for
trial after conviction for another offense); Penal Code
section 1381.5 (asking for release of federal prisoner to
stand trial on pending state charge); and Penal Code sections
1389 through 1389.8 (interstate agreement on detainers)."
3)Governor Brown's Re-Alignment Plan : As part of the budget,
Governor Brown will transfer responsibility for specified
state programs and services to local governments. One of the
first transfers will take place in the prison and juvenile
justice systems; certain low-level offenders, adult parolees,
and juvenile offenders will be realigned from state to local
jurisdictions. Inmates convicted of serious or violent
felonies or convicted of specified sex offenses will continue
to serve their sentences in state prisons. ÝSB 109 (Assembly
Budget Committee), Chapter 15, Statutes of 2011.]
Under the realignment plan, defendants who would normally serve
their sentences in state prisons will serve their sentences in
county jails instead. This bill allows those individuals
serving time in county jail to apply for the same type of
relief those in state prisons are afforded.
4)Arguments in Support :
a) According to East Bay Community Law Center , "AB 877 will
reduce barriers to employment for eligible workers by
amending Section 41500 and adding Section 41500.5 to the
Vehicle Code in order to expand relief available therein to
inmates of county jails. Obtaining a valid California
Driver's License is often a first and essential step in
successful reentry from jails and prisons. Many jobs our
clients are qualified for require a valid driver's license
as part of the employment duties or even as part of the
application process. The additional protections included
in AB 877 will allow greater access to employment
opportunities. Increased employment has a direct impact on
reducing recidivism. Accordingly AB 877 will make our
communities safer and stronger."
b) According to the California Public Defenders'
Association , "Existing law is burdensome in that eligible
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persons in the custody of CDCR or DJJ now must enlist the
help of CDCR and DJJ staff to obtain and submit to DMV the
appropriate form for relief. AB 877 would streamline the
operations and increase efficiency by allowing eligible
incarcerated persons completing a 180-day sentence in
county jail or treatment alternative to incarceration, to
request relief directly from the DMV or from the court. A
court receiving such a request would be able to search its
own computer records and identify qualify non-felony
Vehicle Code offenses and then request that DMV remove such
violations from its records."
5)Prior Legislation : SB 857 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 720, Statutes of 2010, established a
mandatory one-time amnesty program for fines and bail meeting
certain requirements to accept, in full satisfaction of any
eligible fine or bail, 50% of the fine or bail amount, between
January 1, 2012, and June 30, 2012. SB 857 required the
Judicial Council to adopt guidelines for the amnesty program
no later than November 1, 2011.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Public Defender's Association
California United for a Responsible Budget
Community Works
East Bay Community Law Center
Equal Justice Society
Fathers and Families
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay
Office of the Sheriff, San Francisco
Recovery Survival Network
Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
Opposition
None
Analysis Prepared by : Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
AB 877
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