BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Kevin de León, Chair AB 2499 (Bonilla) - Local corrections: home detention programs. Amended: July 3, 2014 Policy Vote: Public Safety 5-0 Urgency: No Mandate: Yes Hearing Date: August 4, 2014 Consultant: Jolie Onodera This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: AB 2499 would: Prospectively authorize good conduct and work performance credits to inmates participating in home detention programs and specified work release programs commensurate with the credit earning provisions under existing law while in jail custody. Expand the information a local law enforcement agency may receive about offenders on electronic monitoring to include current and historical GPS coordinates, if available, and would restrict the use of this information to investigatory purposes. Require an agency (police department) that has knowledge that the subject in a criminal investigation is a participant in an electronic monitoring program to make reasonable efforts to notify the supervising agency prior to serving a warrant or taking any law enforcement action against a participant. Clarify that mandatory supervision commences, unless otherwise ordered by the court, upon release from physical custody or an alternative custody program, whichever is later. Allows time spent in camp, work furlough, other facilities to count as mandatory jail time, even if the underlying statute does not require mandatory minimum period of jail time. Fiscal Impact: Potentially significant ongoing cost savings to counties (Local) to the extent inmates on electronic monitoring earn credits while participating in home detention or work release programs reduces jail time and/or an increased AB 2499 (Bonilla) Page 1 number of offenders participate in electronic monitoring in lieu of jail time. Potentially significant ongoing local cost savings to the extent allowing time spent in camps, work furlough, and other facilities counts as mandatory jail time to an expanded population of offenders (currently only applicable to defendants with mandatory minimum jail sentences). Potential minor state-reimbursable costs (General) for police departments to make reasonable efforts to notify the supervising agency (sheriff or probation department) prior to taking an enforcement action. Background: Existing law provides that notwithstanding any other law, the board of supervisors of any county may authorize the sheriff, probation officer, or director of the county department of corrections to offer a voluntary or involuntary home detention program in lieu of confinement in the county jail, or other correctional facility or program under the auspices of the probation officer. (Penal Code (PC) § 1203.016(a).) Existing law requires when a defendant has been in custody, including but not limited to, any time spent in jail, camp, work furlough facility, and other specified facilities, all days of custody of the defendant, including home detention for inmates who otherwise would be in jail in lieu of bail, are credited toward the term of imprisonment or toward any fine that may be imposed, as specified. (PC § 2900.5(a).) Existing law provides that the time a defendant spent in jail, camp, work furlough facility, and other specified facilities, qualifies as mandatory time in jail if the statute under which the defendant is sentenced requires a mandatory minimum period of time in jail. (PC § 2900.5(f).) Existing law authorizes a court, when sentencing a person to county jail for a felony, to commit the person to county jail for either the full term in custody, as specified, or to suspend the execution of a concluding portion of the term selected at the court's discretion. Under existing law, this period of suspended execution is supervised by the county probation officer and is known as mandatory supervision. Existing law requires, on or after January 1, 2015, unless the court finds, in the interests of justice, that it is not AB 2499 (Bonilla) Page 2 appropriate in a particular case that a period of the concluding portion of a county jail term be served on mandatory supervision. Proposed Law: This bill: Prospectively authorizes good conduct and work performance credits to inmates participating in home detention programs and specified work release programs commensurate with the credit earning provisions under existing law while in jail custody. Expands the information a local law enforcement agency may receive about offenders on electronic monitoring to include current and historical GPS coordinates, if available, and would restrict the use of this information to investigatory purposes. Requires a local law enforcement agency (police department) that has knowledge that the subject in a criminal investigation is a participant in an electronic monitoring program to make reasonable efforts to notify the supervising agency prior to serving a warrant or taking any law enforcement action against a participant. Clarifies that mandatory supervision commences, unless otherwise ordered by the court, upon release from physical custody or an alternative custody program, whichever is later. Staff Comments: This bill could result in potentially significant ongoing cost savings to counties to the extent inmates on electronic monitoring earn credits while participating in home detention or work release programs which reduces jail time and/or an increased number of offenders participate in electronic monitoring in lieu of jail time. Additionally, allowing time spent in camps, work furlough, and other facilities to count as mandatory jail time to an expanded population of offenders (currently only applicable to defendants with mandatory minimum jail sentences), will result in significant ongoing local cost savings.. The requirement on police departments to make reasonable efforts to notify a supervising agency (sheriff or probation department) prior to taking an enforcement action on a participant is estimated to be minor, as in order for the requirement to be triggered, the police department would have to already have AB 2499 (Bonilla) Page 3 knowledge that the person in a criminal investigation is a participant in an electronic monitoring program.