BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 723 (Quirk) - Postrelease supervision: petitions for release
pending revocation hearing.
Amended: July 2, 2013 Policy Vote: Public Safety 6-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 30, 2013
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: AB 723 would authorize an individual on
postrelease community supervision (PRCS) who has been arrested
and held in custody pending a hearing on a revocation petition
filed against him or her to move the court for release on bail
or release on his or her own recognizance (OR), as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Potential ongoing annual costs of approximately $345,000
(General Fund) to the courts to the extent 50 percent of
statewide petitions to revoke PRCS apply for release on bail
or OR pending a revocation hearing. This estimate assumes
5,520 petitions to revoke PRCS per year and an additional 15
minutes per bail hearing for defendants who otherwise could
not have applied for bail under existing law.
Potential cost savings to local jails of the same amount of
$345,000 (Local) assuming 25 percent of those defendants who
petition are granted bail by the courts and avoid 5 days of
incarceration in county jail. Estimate assumes a daily jail
rate of $100 per day.
Background: Pursuant to Public Safety Realignment 2011,
effective October 1, 2011, existing law provides that specified
classes of offenders including those released after serving a
term for a serious or violent felony or a life term under the
Three-Strikes Law, high risk sex offenders, mentally-disordered
offenders, and specified sex offender registrants are subject to
parole under the supervision of the Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Offenders not subject to parole are
to be released from custody on PRCS and are subject to up to
three years of local supervision.
AB 723 (Quirk)
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Existing law provides for intermediate and appropriate
sanctions, including "flash incarceration" for up to ten days,
for violations of the terms of PRCS. Upon a supervising county
agency's determination through an assessment process that
intermediate sanctions are not appropriate, the agency is
required to file a petition to revoke, modify, or terminate
PRCS. Under existing law, the supervising PRCS agency has the
authority to require the defendant to be held in custody pending
the revocation hearing. The decision to hold the defendant is to
be based on a determination that the defendant poses an
unreasonable risk to public safety, the defendant may fail to
appear at the hearing if released, or for any other reason in
the interests of justice. If PRCS is revoked, modified, or
terminated, the hearing officer can impose a county-jail
sentence of up to 180 days, but the offender may not be returned
to state prison.
Under the recently enacted public safety realignment trailer
bill, SB 1023 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) Chapter
43/2012, the existing probation revocation procedures under
Penal Code section 1203.2 are also applied to revocations of
mandatory supervision, PRCS, and beginning, July 1, 2013,
parole, in order to establish uniformity to relieve the courts
of the burdens associated with implementing separate procedures
for each category of supervision.
Proposed Law: This bill would provide that a person subject to
PRCS who has had a revocation petition filed against him or her
by the county agency responsible for PRCS may file an
application for bail or release on OR with the superior court.
This bill would provide that admittance to bail or OR release
pending revocation of PRCS is a matter within the sole
discretion of the court. Additionally, any bail or OR
application made shall be governed by the existing procedures
set forth in existing law.
Prior Legislation: AB 1913 (Skinner) 2012 was substantially
similar to this measure and was held on the Suspense File of
this committee.
SB 1023 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) Chapter 43/2012,
the Public Safety Realignment trailer bill, among other
provisions, applies probation revocation procedures under Penal
AB 723 (Quirk)
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Code section 1203.2 to revocations of mandatory supervision,
PRCS, and beginning, July 1, 2013, parole.
Staff Comments: By authorizing persons supervised under PRCS to
apply for release on bail or release on one's OR, the provisions
of this bill could result in increased administrative costs to
the courts for consideration of bail and OR applications filed
by persons pending revocation of PRCS.
Information from the Judicial Council indicates approximately
2,300 petitions to revoke PRCS were filed with the courts
statewide between October 1, 2011, and February 29, 2012.
Assuming the rate of filing remains constant, approximately
5,520 petitions would be filed annually statewide. It is unknown
with certainly what percentage of cases would result in a court
hearing, but it is assumed that the hearing would be available
to the petitioner as a matter of right under the provisions of
the bill. Assuming 50 percent of petitions filed annually result
in court hearings would result in increased court costs of
$345,000 (General Fund) per year. This estimate assumes 15
minutes per bail hearing and an eight-hour court day cost of
$4,000 (or $125 per 15 minutes).
Assuming 25 percent of the applications for bail (25 percent of
the 2,760 petitions, or 690 petitions) resulted in the courts
granting bail, county jails could experience local jail savings
of approximately $345,000 based on averting 5 days of
incarceration in county jail at an average daily jail rate of
$100 per day.