BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 1128 (Salas) - Alcoholic beverages: underage drinking.
Amended: July 9, 2013 Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 12, 2013
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1128 would revise the crimes and penalties for
providing an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years of
age, as follows:
Requires that the acts of selling, furnishing, giving, or
causing to be sold, furnished, or given away any alcoholic
beverage to a person under 21 years of age, be performed
knowingly in order to be considered a misdemeanor.
Increases the penalty from a misdemeanor to an alternate
felony/misdemeanor (wobbler) for a person who knowingly
purchases for, furnishes, gives, or gives away an alcoholic
beverage to a person under 21 years of age who consumes the
alcohol and thereby proximately causes death or great bodily
injury (GBI) to himself/herself or another. For a person who
committed the act and knew the person was under 21 years of
age, the offense would be a felony, as specified.
Adds the act of 'selling' to the existing misdemeanor which
becomes a wobbler under the provisions of this bill for acts
resulting in death or GBI.
Provides that a licensee or employee, agent, or
representative of a licensee is not subject to felony
prosecution for the sale, furnishing, giving, or giving away
of an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years of age
unless the licensee, employee, agency, or representative had
actual prior knowledge that the person to whom the alcoholic
beverage was provided was under 21 years of age.
Fiscal Impact:
Potential minor increase in state incarceration costs,
likely less than $50,000 (General Fund) annually, for
increased state prison commitments to the extent felony
convictions under this measure sentenced pursuant to PC §
AB 1128 (Salas)
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1170(h) occur for individuals convicted of a prior serious
or violent felony.
Ongoing non-reimbursable local enforcement and
incarceration costs offset to a degree by fine revenue.
While the impact of this bill independently on local jails
is likely to be minor, the cumulative effect of new or
expanded crimes impacting jail overcrowding could create
General Fund cost pressure on capital outlay, staffing,
programming, the courts, and other resources in the context
of criminal justice realignment.
Background: Existing law provides that a person who sells,
furnishes, gives, or causes to be sold, furnished, or given away
any alcoholic beverage to any person under 21 years of age is
guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $250 (up to
$500 for subsequent violations, or $1,000 if alcohol furnished
to a minor) and/or community service, as specified.
Under existing law, a person who purchases any alcoholic
beverage for, or furnishes, gives, or gives away any alcoholic
beverage to a person under 21 years of age, and the person under
21 years of age consumes the alcohol and thereby proximately
causes GBI or death to himself, herself, or another person, is
guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in county
jail for a minimum of six months but not more than one year, a
fine of up to $1,000, or both.
This bill would increase the penalty to an alternate
felony/misdemeanor for purchasing, furnishing, or giving alcohol
to a person under 21 years of age who drinks the alcohol and
then proximately causes GBI or death, if the person providing
the alcohol knew that the person was under 21 years of age.
Proposed Law: This bill would revise the crimes and penalties
for providing an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years
of age, as follows:
Requires that the acts of selling, furnishing, giving, or
causing to be sold, furnished, or given away any alcoholic
beverage to a person under 21 years of age, be performed
knowingly in order to be considered a misdemeanor.
Revises the penalty to an alternate felony/misdemeanor for
a person who knowingly sells, purchases for, furnishes,
gives, or gives away an alcoholic beverage to a person under
21 years of age who consumes the alcohol and thereby
proximately causes death or GBI to himself/herself or
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another.
o For a person who committed the act and knew the
person was under 21 years of age, the offense would be a
felony, punishable by a fine of $1,000, by imprisonment
in county jail for 16 months, two or three years, or 16
months, two or three years in state prison if previously
convicted of a serious or violent felony, or by both the
fine and imprisonment.
o For a person who committed the act but did not know
the person was under 21 years of age, the offense would
be a misdemeanor, punishable by not less than six months
but not more than one year in county jail, a fine of up
to $1,000, or both.
Provides that a licensee or employee, agent, or
representative of a licensee is not subject to felony
prosecution for the sale, furnishing, giving, or giving away
of an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21 years of age
unless the licensee, employee, agency, or representative had
actual prior knowledge that the person to whom the alcoholic
beverage was provided was under 21 years of age.
Related Legislation: AB 1657 (Runner) 2007 would have made the
act of providing an alcoholic beverage to a person who the
provider knew, or reasonably should have known, was under the
age of 21 years, and the person under the age of 21 years
thereafter consumes the alcohol and thereby proximately causes
GBI or death to himself, herself, or any other person, and the
provider knew, or reasonably should have known, of that danger,
punishable as either a misdemeanor or a felony, as specified.
This bill failed in the Senate Committee on Public Safety.
AB 2967 (Runner) 2006 and AB 454 (Runner) 2005 were similar
measures that also failed in the Senate Committee on Public
Safety.
Staff Comments: By increasing the penalty to a wobbler for
knowingly providing an alcoholic beverage to a person under 21
years of age that results in death or GBI, the provisions of
this bill could result in additional non-reimbursable local
enforcement costs offset to a degree by increased fine revenue.
In addition, as the felony is punishable by imprisonment for 16
months, two or three years in either county jail (or state
prison if the defendant has a prior conviction for a serious or
violent felony), this bill could potentially result in extended
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county jail and state prison terms than otherwise would have
occurred under the existing penalty provisions for this offense.
Data from the Department of Justice indicates there were 20
arrests in 2012 for this offense, but it is unknown how many
dispositions actually resulted in convictions. Given the
relatively few number of new felony arrests for persons
providing alcohol to a person under 21 years of age resulting in
death or GBI, the number of prospective felony convictions for
this offense against persons who also have a prior serious or
violent felony is estimated to be minor. Based on the CDCR
inmate overcrowding rate for 2013-14 of $10,000 per inmate per
year, annual state prison costs are estimated to be less than
$50,000 (General Fund).
The creation of new crimes has historically been analyzed by
this Committee to result in non-reimbursable state mandated
costs for local law enforcement and incarceration. Staff notes,
however, that the creation of new or expanded crimes impacting
local jails taken cumulatively could increase the statewide
adult jail population to a degree that could potentially impact
the flexibility of counties to manage their jail populations
recently exacerbated under 2011 Public Safety Realignment. While
the impact of the provisions of this bill are likely to be
minor, the cumulative effect of all new and expanded crimes
could create unknown General Fund cost pressure on capital
outlay, staffing, programming, the courts, and other resources.
Likewise, while this bill independently is not likely to impact
the prison population significantly, staff notes that considered
collectively with all pending legislative proposals potentially
exacerbating prison overcrowding, the effect of any future
increases to the prison population creates General Fund cost
pressure to the extent that overall prison population growth
potentially requires the utilization of additional contract
beds, out-of-state facilities, or capital outlay in order to
comply with the court-ordered population limit.