BILL NUMBER: AB 293	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Levine

                        FEBRUARY 11, 2015

   An act to add Section 5004.7 to the Penal Code, relating to
prisons.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 293, as introduced, Levine. Prisons: inmate threats.
   Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation to oversee the state prison system. Existing law makes
it a crime to willfully threaten to commit a crime that will result
in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific
intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat and which, on
its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so
unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to
the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect
of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably
to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her
immediate family's safety.
   This bill would require the department to establish a statewide
policy on operational procedures for the handling of threats made by
inmates, and threats made by family members of inmates, against
department staff. The bill would require that the policy include
methods to ensure that department staff members are advised of
threats made against them by inmates and their family members and
that all threats against department staff made by inmates and their
family members are thoroughly investigated. The bill would require an
individual institution within the department that has a more
detailed policy to make the policy accessible to every member of the
staff of the institution. The bill would require the department to
provide training on the policy developed pursuant to these provisions
as part of its existing training programs.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 5004.7 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
   5004.7.  (a) The department shall establish a statewide policy on
operational procedures for the handling of threats made by inmates,
and threats made by family members of inmates, against department
staff. The policy shall include methods to ensure that department
staff members are advised of threats made against them by inmates or
their family members and shall require that all threats against
department staff made by inmates or their family members are
thoroughly investigated. A copy of the statewide policy shall be
accessible to members of the public upon request.
   (b) This section does not prohibit an individual institution
within the department from developing a more detailed notification
procedure for advising staff members of threats made against them. If
an individual institution has a more detailed policy, the policy
shall be accessible to every member of the staff of the institution.
   (c) The department shall provide training on the policy developed
pursuant to this section as part of its existing training programs.