BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1010| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 1010 Author: Mitchell (D), et al. Amended: 8/11/14 Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 4-2, 4/29/14 AYES: Hancock, Liu, Mitchell, Steinberg NOES: Anderson, Knight NO VOTE RECORDED: De León SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-2, 5/12/14 AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg NOES: Walters, Gaines SENATE FLOOR : 21-12, 5/28/14 AYES: Beall, Block, Corbett, De León, DeSaulnier, Evans, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Mitchell, Monning, Padilla, Pavley, Roth, Steinberg, Wolk NOES: Anderson, Berryhill, Cannella, Fuller, Gaines, Huff, Knight, Morrell, Nielsen, Vidak, Walters, Wyland NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Correa, Galgiani, Hueso, Torres, Wright, Yee ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 50-19, 8/14/14 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Cocaine base: penalties SOURCE : A New Way of Life American Civil Liberties Union California Attorneys for Criminal Justice California Public Defenders Association CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 2 California State Conference of the NAACP Californians for Safety & Justice Drug Policy Alliance Ella Baker Center Friends Committee on Legislation National Council for La Raza William C. Velázquez Institute DIGEST : This bill reduces the penalty for possession for sale of cocaine base to be the same as that for powder cocaine; and revises the guidelines for probation eligibility for both the possession for sale of powder cocaine and cocaine base, as specified. Assembly Amendments add coauthors and make technical changes. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Includes the following penalties for conduct involving cocaine and cocaine base: A. Simple possession (for personal use) of cocaine or cocaine base is a felony jail term of 16 months, two years or three years. B. Possession for sale of cocaine is a felony jail term of two, three or four years. C. Possession for sale of cocaine base is a felony jail term of three, four or five years. D. Sale or distribution of cocaine or cocaine base is a felony jail term of three, four or five years. 2. Provides for seizure and forfeiture of a vehicle, boat or airplane used as an instrumentality of drug commerce. Specifies that provisions are triggered where the amount of cocaine base involved in the offense weighed 14.25 grams (approximately ounce) or more and where the amount of cocaine weighed 28.5 grams (1 ounce). CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 3 3. Provides that the court can only grant probation to a person convicted of certain crimes if unusual circumstances exist establishing that a grant of probation promotes justice. The restriction applies to any case involving 14.25 grams or more of cocaine base, or 57 grams or more of a substance containing at least five grams of cocaine base. By comparison, the restriction applies to any case involving 28.5 grams or more of cocaine, or 57 grams or more of a substance containing cocaine. This bill: 1. Provides that the incarceration penalty for possession for sale or distribution of cocaine base is a felony jail term of two, three or four years - the penalty for possession for sale of powder cocaine. 2. Provides probation can only be granted to a person convicted of possession for sale of 28.5 grams or more of cocaine base, or 57 grams or more of a substance containing at least five grams of cocaine base, if the court finds unusual circumstances demonstrating that probation promotes justice. 3. Authorizes seizure and forfeiture of a vehicle, boat or airplane used as an instrumentality of drug commerce involving cocaine base weighing 28.5 grams or more, or 57 grams or more of a substance containing at least five grams of cocaine base. 4. Includes legislative findings that powder cocaine and cocaine base are two different forms of the same drug, each producing the same effects when ingested and that imposing higher penalties and greater forfeitures on persons convicted of crimes involving cocaine base is unjustified. Background The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has produced in 2013 data on the number of inmates from fiscal year 2005-06 through 2009-10 imprisoned for possession for sale of powder cocaine and those imprisoned for possession for sale of cocaine base. The data was disaggregated by ethnicity and sex of the inmates. The data is set out without reflecting the sex of the inmate: CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 4 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Race/Ethnici|African |Caucasian |Latino |Other | |ty |American | | | | |------------+-------------+-------------+------------+-----------| |Cocaine |2061 |829 |3285 |181 | |------------+-------------+-------------+------------+-----------| |Cocaine |4152 |96 |972 |142 | |Base | | | | | |------------+-------------+-------------+------------+-----------| |Total |6213 |925 |4257 |323 | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- African Americans were imprisoned for possession of cocaine base for sale at a rate 43.25 times that for Caucasians. African Americans were imprisoned for possession of cocaine hydrochloride for sale at a rate 2.5 times that for Caucasians. African Americans were imprisoned for possession of cocaine base for sale at a rate 4.3 times that for Latinos. Latinos were imprisoned for possession of cocaine hydrochloride for sale at a rate 1.6 times that for African Americans. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Potential future significant cost savings in the low millions of dollars (General Fund) to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation assuming shorter prison sentences and/or fewer prison commitments due to expanded probation eligibility provisions for about 150 inmates committed to state prison annually. Potential future significant cost savings in the millions of dollars (Local) to local agencies for reduced county jail terms for several hundred offenders under the reduced CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 5 sentencing triad and expanded probation eligibility provisions, offset to a degree by increased costs for a larger felony probation population. The Department of Justice conviction data indicates on average over 750 convictions for possession for sale of cocaine base since 2012. Potential increase in court costs (General Fund*) for additional revocation hearings associated with the larger population of felony probationers. Unknown, potential minor loss of state and local revenues from asset forfeiture proceeds of vehicles seized from cocaine base offenses. *Trial Court Trust Fund SUPPORT : (Verified 8/14/14) A New Way of Life (co-source) American Civil Liberties Union (co-source) California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (co-source) California Public Defenders Association (co-source) California State Conference of the NAACP (co-source) Californians for Safety & Justice (co-source) Drug Policy Alliance (co-source) Ella Baker Center (co-source) Friends Committee on Legislation (co-source) National Council for La Raza (co-source) William C. Velázquez Institute (co-source) Addiction Research and Treatment Advancement Project Amity Foundation Anti-Recidivism Coalition Asian American Drug Abuse Program Asian Law Caucus California Coalition for Women Prisoners California Drug Counseling, Inc. California Society of Addiction Medicine Center for Health Justice Center for Living and Learning Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice Center on Policy Initiatives Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles Community Coalition CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 6 Community Works West Courage Campaign Employee Rights Center healthRIGHT360 Holman United Methodist Church Homeboy Industries Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles Homies Unidos Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission Human Rights Watch Islamic Shura Council of Southern California Justice Not Jails Justice Policy Institute Latino Voters League Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights League of United Latin American Citizens Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Los Angeles Community Action Network Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund National Association of Social Workers, Women's Council, CA Chapter National Employment Law Project New PATH PICO California Pillars of the Community Presente.org Progressive Christians Uniting Project Inform Rubicon Programs San Diego Black Health Associates, Inc. San Diego Organizing Project San Fernando Recovery Center SHIELDS for Families Tarzana Treatment Centers The Sentencing Project UC Hastings Law Students for Sensible Drug Policy OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/14/14) California Narcotics Officers Association CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 7 California Police Chiefs Association ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author: Crack and powder cocaine are two forms of the same drug. Scientific reports, including a major study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, demonstrate that they have essentially identical effects on the human body. Powder cocaine can be injected or snorted. Crack cocaine can be injected or smoked, and is a product derived when cocaine powder is processed with an alkali, typically common baking soda. Gram for gram, there is less active drug in crack cocaine than in powder cocaine. Whatever their intended goal, disparate sentencing guidelines for two forms of the same drug has resulted in a pattern of institutional racism, with longer prison sentences given to people of color who are more likely than whites to be arrested and incarcerated for cocaine base offenses compared to powder cocaine offenses, despite comparable rates of usage and sales across racial and ethnic groups. ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Police Chiefs Association states, that this bill will lower the penalties for trafficking in cocaine base to the level that currently exists for powder cocaine trafficking. We believe that the preferable approach is to raise the penalties for powder cocaine trafficking to the same level that currently exists for trafficking in cocaine base. Candidly, the damages done to individuals, families and neighborhoods by virtue of cocaine trafficking are severe. Although we support equalizing the penalty structures, we do not believe that drug traffickers - who visit real harm on communities - should be the beneficiaries of legislation that equalizes the penalty structure. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 50-19, 8/14/14 AYES: Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Garcia, Gatto, CONTINUED SB 1010 Page 8 Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Hall, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, John A. Pérez, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Conway, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gorell, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Logue, Mansoor, Melendez, Nestande, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Salas, Waldron NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Bigelow, Ian Calderon, Dahle, Daly, Gray, Jones, Linder, Medina, Perea, Vacancy JG:d 8/14/14 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED