BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair S
2013-2014 Regular Session B
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SB 114 (Pavley)
As Introduced January 15, 2013
Hearing date: April 2, 2013
Welfare and Institutions Code
AA:mc
SEXUALLY EXPLOITED MINORS PILOT PROJECT - LOS ANGELES COUNTY
HISTORY
Source: Children's Advocacy Institute
Prior Legislation: SB 1279 (Pavley) - Ch. 116, Stats. 2010
AB 499 (Swanson) - Ch. 359, Stats. 2008
Support: California Narcotic Officers' Association; California
Police Chiefs Association; Inc.; California Public
Defenders Association; California State Sheriffs'
Association; The American Congress of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists
Opposition:None known
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE SUNSET DATE FOR THE DISCRETIONARY PILOT PROJECT IN LOS
ANGELES COUNTY REGARDING the development of a comprehensive,
multidisciplinary model reflecting the best practices for the
response of law enforcement and the criminal and juvenile justice
systems to identify, assess and address the needs of commercially
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sexually exploited children who have been arrested or detained by
local law enforcement FOR PROSTITUTION CRIMES BE EXTENDED 3 YEARS?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to extend by 3 years the sunset date
for the discretionary pilot project in Los Angeles County
regarding the development of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary
model reflecting the best practices for the response of law
enforcement and the criminal and juvenile justice systems to
identify, assess and address the needs of commercially sexually
exploited children who have been arrested or detained by local
law enforcement for prostitution crimes.
Current law statutorily authorizes the County of Los Angeles,
contingent upon local funding, to establish a pilot project to
develop a comprehensive, replicative, multidisciplinary model to
address the needs and effective treatment of commercially
sexually exploited minors who have been arrested or detained by
local law enforcement, as specified. (Welfare and Institutions
Code ("WIC") � 18259.7.)
Current law sunsets these provisions on January 1, 2014. (WIC �
18259.10.)
This bill would extend this sunset three years to January 1,
2017.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation
relating to conditions of confinement. On May 23, 2011, the
United States Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two
years from the date of its ruling, subject to the right of the
state to seek modifications in appropriate circumstances.
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Beginning in early 2007, Senate leadership initiated a policy to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate the
prison overcrowding crisis through new or expanded felony
prosecutions. Under the resulting policy known as "ROCA" (which
stands for "Receivership/ Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation"), the
Committee held measures which created a new felony, expanded the
scope or penalty of an existing felony, or otherwise increased
the application of a felony in a manner which could exacerbate
the prison overcrowding crisis. Under these principles, ROCA
was applied as a content-neutral, provisional measure necessary
to ensure that the Legislature did not erode progress towards
reducing prison overcrowding by passing legislation which would
increase the prison population. ROCA necessitated many hard and
difficult decisions for the Committee.
In January of 2013, just over a year after the enactment of the
historic Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, the State of
California filed court documents seeking to vacate or modify the
federal court order to reduce the state's prison population to
137.5 percent of design capacity. The State submitted in part
that the, ". . . population in the State's 33 prisons has been
reduced by over 24,000 inmates since October 2011 when public
safety realignment went into effect, by more than 36,000 inmates
compared to the 2008 population . . . , and by nearly 42,000
inmates since 2006 . . . ." Plaintiffs, who oppose the state's
motion, argue in part that, "California prisons, which currently
average 150% of capacity, and reach as high as 185% of capacity
at one prison, continue to deliver health care that is
constitutionally deficient."
In an order dated January 29, 2013, the federal court granted
the state a six-month extension to achieve the 137.5 % prisoner
population cap by December 31st of this year.
The ongoing litigation indicates that prison capacity and
related issues concerning conditions of confinement remain
unsettled. However, in light of the real gains in reducing the
prison population that have been made, although even greater
reductions are required by the court, the Committee will review
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each ROCA bill with more flexible consideration. The following
questions will inform this consideration:
whether a measure erodes realignment;
whether a measure addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
whether a bill corrects a constitutional infirmity or
legislative drafting error;
whether a measure proposes penalties which are
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy; and
whether a bill addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill; Author's Amendments
The author states:
This bill seeks to extend the sunset date on the Los
Angeles County pilot program for sexually exploited
youth. Currently, the program is set to sunset
January 1, 2014. This bill would extend the sunset by
three years.
The author intends to amend this bill to also change the date in
Welfare and Institutions Code section 18259.7(e) concerning a
report to the Legislature from April 1, 2013, to April 1, 2016,
to reflect the sunset change proposed by the bill.
2. Background
In 2008, the Legislature passed AB 499 (Swanson) to authorize a
pilot project in Alameda County intended "to encourage the
development of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary model
reflecting the best practices for the response of law
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enforcement and the criminal and juvenile justice systems to
identify and assess commercially sexually exploited children who
have been arrested or detained by local law enforcement." In
2010, the Legislature passed a virtually
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identical bill to pilot the same kind of project in Los Angeles.
This bill extends the sunset on the Los Angeles project from
January 1, 2014, to January 1, 2017. This sunset mirrors the
sunset date for the Alameda County project.
3. Sexually Exploited Minors and the Criminal Justice System
News articles over the last few years have highlighted the
problem of child and teen prostitutes. For example, the Contra
Costa Times in 2008 reported, "last year, of the 443 females
arrested for prostitution in Oakland, 29 were juvenile cases. ?
Meanwhile, police have only just started to quantify the problem
and have been working to nail down firm numbers. ? Technology,
the Internet, and cell phones have all changed the game. Pimps
now use technology to sell girls as young as 11 or 12 on the
street."<1> Similarly, an Oakland Tribune article from earlier
this year described efforts to address child prostitutes as
victims rather than criminal offenders:
The majority of youngsters involved in the sex trade
have been abused or neglected. Almost all the
youngsters on the streets have run away from a home
situation they find untenable.
"A lot of these young girls are foster care youth and
kids not connected to any family system," said Brian
Bob, outreach coordinator for Covenant House, a
nonprofit homeless shelter for youth that drives a van
around Oakland five nights a week to provide food and,
if they'll accept it, shelter to homeless youngsters.
The vast majority of homeless girls Covenant House
finds are prostitutes, he said.
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<1> Dunlap, Kamika, Cops Treating Child Prostitutes as
Victims, Contra Costa Times, April 23, 2008.
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. . .
Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Sharmin
Eshraghi Bock, who prosecutes human exploitation and
trafficking cases, said many young girls who fall into
prostitution have never known a loving family, so they
mistake a pimp's affection and promises of material
things for love.
. . .
Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited Youth, an
Oakland-based counseling program, last year surveyed 100
children ages 11 to 17 who had been peddled on the
streets and referred for counseling.
They found that 75 percent of the children had been
raped at some time in their lives, 48 percent had been
physically or sexually abused, and 70 percent had been
assaulted while working the streets.
Most respondents were runaways: Eighty-eight percent
said they had run away from their family home or a
foster care home. . . .
Nola Brantley, coordinator of the SACEY counseling program,
said the child prostitution epidemic in Oakland can be
partially blamed on an overtaxed police system.
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"There are cases of severe child abuse in Oakland that
will go uninvestigated and not prosecuted because of
lack of manpower," Brantley said. "Some of these same
children who were abused and nobody intervened will go
on to become sexually exploited minors."<2>
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<2> Barbara Grady, Many Child Prostitutes Seeking Shelter,
Oakland Tribune, April 22, 2008.