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) AB 934 -- 3/21/13 -- Page 4 Support : Los Angeles District Attorney. Opposition : Unknown.