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  








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              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  








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          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  








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          knowledge that the person in a criminal investigation is a  
          participant in an electronic monitoring program.