BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: AB 934 HEARING: 6/12/13
AUTHOR: Cooley FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 3/21/13 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Austin
LOCAL AGENCIES AND RESTITUTION FUNDS
Requires local agencies to document a reasonable effort to
locate victims owed restitution.
Background and Existing Law
The California Constitution provides that all persons who
suffer losses as a result of criminal activity will have
the right to restitution from the perpetrators of the
crimes, unless there are compelling and extraordinary
reasons (Article I, Section 28).
A county that holds victim restitution funds can designate
an agency to transfer funds to:
The California Victim Compensation and Government
Claims Board (CVCGCB) for direct payment to the
victim,
The Restitution Fund, to the extent that the victim
has received assistance pursuant to that program, or
The victim directly.
The sentencing court will be provided a record of the
payments made to the victims and of the payments deposited
to the Restitution Fund.
When a victim cannot be located, the restitution revenues
received by the CVCGCB, or the designated agency at the
county level, on the victim's behalf are held where the
funds are deposited, in trust in the Restitution Fund. The
funds are held until the end of the state fiscal year or
until the time that the victim has provided current address
information, whichever occurs sooner. Amounts remaining in
trust at the end of the specified period of time will
revert to the Restitution Fund (AB 2041, Baker, 1983).
In 1995, the Legislature required victim restitution moneys
AB 934 -- 3/21/13 -- Page 2
to be either deposited into the Restitution Fund, or used
by the local agency for purposes of victim services after
the expiration of a three-year period. Once a judgment has
been made to award restitution moneys to victims, and
victims have not been found, the only notice that is
required is publication in the newspaper (SB 911, Marks,
1995).
Last year, the Legislature approved legislation requiring
courts to assess a post release community supervision or
mandatory-supervision revocation fine in the same amount as
that imposed for a restitution fine, and authorizes local
agencies to collect them. This change was part of
California's corrections realignment plan, which shifted
responsibility from the state to counties for the custody,
treatment, and supervision of individuals convicted of
specified nonviolent, non-serious, non-sex crimes (SB 1210,
Lieu, 2012). Also last year, the Legislature authorized
prosecutors to send victim contact information to CDCR,
without the victim's consent, for purposes of distributing
restitution (AB 2251, Feuer, 2012).
Some local officials want local agencies to be required to
make reasonable efforts to locate victims of crime who are
owed restitution before the local agency transfers
unclaimed funds to the Restitution Fund or uses the funds
for victim services.
Proposed Law
Assembly Bill 934 requires a local agency to document that
it has made a reasonable effort to locate the victim to
whom restitution is owed before depositing funds into the
Restitution Fund or using those funds for victim services.
AB 934 provides that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the
state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts
for those costs must be made pursuant to current law
governing state-mandated local costs.
State Revenue Impact
Unknown.
AB 934 -- 3/21/13 -- Page 3
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Some local officials want to
ensure that agencies make a sincere and reasonable effort
to get victims the restitution fees due to them.
Currently, the only notice that is required is publication
in the newspaper. This form of notice is rarely effective.
The procedure used by investigators to find witness,
including contacting them through previous listed phone
numbers, addresses, emails, and social media, is far more
intensive. The Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie
Lacey notes that money may be collected on behalf of
victims by probation departments and prosecutors as well as
the state. Due to realignment of the prison population,
increasing numbers of crime victims will rely on local
government rather than CDCR to collect restitution. She
states that "it is time to update this law to assure that
crime victims will receive the money that is owed to them."
AB 934 advances the laudable goal of providing crime
victims with restitution that state laws provide to them.
2. What constitutes reasonable ? The lack of definition for
what it means to "document" reasonable effort and for what
"reasonable effort" demands may hinder the goal of getting
more victims the restitution funds owed to them. Although
this allows for flexibility in approach, the lack of
definition may also lead to a lack of uniformity in
compliance from one local jurisdiction to another. The
Committee may want to consider defining the documentation
of a reasonable effort.
Assembly Actions
Assembly Local Government: 9-0
Assembly Appropriations: 17-0
Assembly Floor: 70-0
Support and Opposition (6/6/13)
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Support : Los Angeles District Attorney.
Opposition : Unknown.