AB 1960, as amended, Perea. State summary criminal history information: state hospitals.
Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain state summary criminal history information, including the identification and criminal history of any person, such as his or her name, date of birth, physical description, fingerprints, photographs, dates of arrest, arresting agencies and booking numbers, charges, dispositions, and similar data about the person. Existing law requires the department to furnish this information in response to a request from certain authorized agencies, organizations, or individuals for specified purposes. Existing law authorizes state criminal summary history information to be given to the director of a state hospital or other treatment facility in specified circumstances, including when the person is being committed for being dangerous to others. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly furnish a state summary criminal history record or information obtained from a record to a person who is not authorized by law to receive that record or information.
This bill would require the director of a state hospital or a clinician, as defined, to obtain the state summary criminal history information for a patient committed to the State Department of State Hospitals. The bill would state the purposes for which the information may be used, including to assess the violence risk and the appropriate placement of the patient, and would require the information to be removed from the patient’s file and destroyed within 30 days of the patient being discharged. This bill would also require law enforcement personnel to provide the criminal history information to the director or clinician upon request through the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System for this purpose. Because the furnishing of this information by the director or clinician to an unauthorized person would be a misdemeanor pursuant to the provisions described above, this bill would expand the scope of an existing crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 4142 is added to the Welfare and
2Institutions Code, to read:
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, whenever a patient
4is committed to the State Department of State Hospitals, a director
5of a state hospital or a clinician, as defined in subdivision (f), shall
6obtain the state summary criminal history information for the
7patient. The information shall be used to assess the violence risk
8of a patient, to assess the appropriate placement of a patient, for
9treatment purposes of a patient, for use in preparing periodic reports
10as required by statute, or to determine the patient’s progress or
11fitness for release. The state summary criminal history information
12shall be placed in the patient’s confidential file for the duration of
13his or her commitment.
14(b) The information may be obtained through use of the
15
California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System
P3 1(CLETS). Law enforcement personnel shall cooperate with requests
2for state summary criminal history information authorized pursuant
3to this section and shall provide the information to the requesting
4entity in a timely manner.
5(c) A law enforcement officer or person authorized by this
6section to receive the information who obtains the information in
7the record and knowingly provides the information to a person not
8authorized by law to receive the information is guilty of a
9misdemeanor as specified in Section 11142 of the Penal Code.
10(d) Information obtained pursuant to this section shall not be
11used for any purposes other than those described in subdivision
12(a).
13(e) For purposes of this section, the State Department of State
14Hospitals law enforcement personnel, pursuant to Section 830.38
15of the Penal Code, may act as thebegin delete governmental criminal justice begin insert law enforcement personnel
16agency described in subdivision (a).end delete
17described in subdivision (b).end insert
18(f) For purposes of this section, “clinician” means a state
19licensed mental health professional working within the State
20Department of State Hospitalsbegin insert who has received, and is current
21in, CLETS training that is appropriate for a person who has
22ongoing access to information from the CLETS and is not a CLETS
23operator, following the
policies on training, compliance, and
24inspection required by the Department of Justiceend insert.
25(g) State summary criminal history information secured pursuant
26to this section shall remain confidential and access shall be limited
27to the director of the state hospital or the clinician. Within 30 days
28of discharge from the state hospital, the state summary criminal
29history information shall be removed from the patient’s file and
30destroyed.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
32Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
33the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
34district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
35infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
36for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
37the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
P4 1the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
2Constitution.
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