BILL NUMBER: AB 1730 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 30, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 27, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Atkins and Eggman
(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Olsen and Quirk)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Burke, Campos, Chiu, Dodd, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gonzalez, and Mark Stone)
JANUARY 28, 2016
An act to add and repeal Section 893.5 to
of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating
to human trafficking.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1730, as amended, Atkins. Human trafficking: minors.
Existing law proscribes the crime of human trafficking, as
defined. A person who causes, induces, or persuades, or attempts to
cause, induce, or persuade, a person who is a minor at the time of
commission of the offense to engage in a commercial sex act, with the
intent to effect or maintain a violation of any of specified sex
offenses, is guilty of human trafficking. Existing law also
proscribes the crime of prostitution.
Existing law authorizes or requires, as specified, the probation
officer of a county to exercise various duties with respect to a
minor who has been found to be within the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court on the ground that he or she has violated a law or
statute, or that he or she has suffered, or there is a substantial
risk that he or she will suffer, abuse or neglect.
Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community
Corrections to provide statewide leadership, coordination, and
technical assistance to promote effective state and local efforts and
partnerships in California's adult and juvenile criminal justice
system.
This bill would would, only until January
1, 2022, require the Board of State and Community Corrections
to establish a pilot project in each of the Counties of Sacramento,
San Diego, and Santa Clara, in which, if the county elects to
participate in the pilot project, the chief probation officer of the
county would be required to create a program to provide services to
youth within his or her jurisdiction that address the need for
services relating to the commercial sexual exploitation of youth.
The bill would state that the purpose of the pilot project is to
test a service model that would produce improved outcomes for youth
victims of human trafficking. The bill would authorize the
participating county to determine whether the probation department,
the county child welfare agency, or both the probation department and
the county child welfare agency would participate in the pilot
project. The bill would also require a county that establishes a
pilot program pursuant to these provisions to conduct at least one
evaluation of the program's impact and effectiveness and to submit
that evaluation to the board. The bill would provide that the
pilot projects established pursuant to these provisions would be
funded contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act. The
bill would provide that funds appropriated for these purposes shall
be administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections.
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. The Legislature finds and declares
all of the following:
(a) Worldwide, human trafficking is a $32,000,000,000 per year
industry.
(b) After drug trafficking and counterfeiting, it is the world's
most profitable criminal activity.
(c) Although this issue was previously believed to be an
international problem, current statistics show that human trafficking
is increasingly a domestic issue.
(d) According to estimates by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), human trafficking or the commercial sexual exploitation of
children in the United States currently involves over 100,000
children. The San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, and San Diego
metropolitan areas comprise three of the nation's 13 areas of "high
intensity" child exploitation in this country, as defined by the FBI.
(e) Studies have estimated that anywhere from 50 percent to 80
percent of victims of commercial sexual exploitation are, or
previously were, involved with the child welfare system.
(f) Law enforcement, probation, education, mental health, and
public health systems, as well as nonprofit organizations, currently
serve these victims, but often lack coordination in providing
services. These systems do not yet consistently recognize these young
people as victims who are subject to the cycle of commercial sexual
exploitation. Although they are learning to identify victims, they do
not yet have adequate service design, nor capacity, to provide
specialized services. Integrated strategies are necessary in order to
help child victims of sexual exploitation in California and to
ascertain the service models and strategies that are effective in the
recovery of the child and the child's future.
(g) According to the California Child Welfare Council, there is a
dearth of specialized placements and services to help youth and their
families when commercial sexual exploitation occurs. Although
legislation has recently been enacted to permit these victims to
enter the child welfare system in order to facilitate placements and
the provision of other essential services to these victims, and other
important implementation efforts are underway, specially attuned
services do not yet exist.
SEC. 2. SECTION 1. Section 893.5 is
added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:
893.5. (a) The Board of State and Community Corrections shall
establish a pilot project in each of the Counties of Sacramento, San
Diego, and Santa Clara, in which, if the county elects to participate
in the pilot project, the chief probation officer of the county
shall create a program to provide services to youth within his or her
jurisdiction that addresses the need for services relating to the
commercial sexual exploitation of youth. The purpose of the
pilot project is to test a service model that would produce improved
outcomes for youth victims of human trafficking. The
participating county may determine whether the probation
department, the county child welfare agency, or both the probation
department and the county child welfare agency shall participate in
the pilot project.
(b) Programs that receive funding pursuant to this section shall
be licensed by the State Department of Social Services and may
include, but shall not be limited to, programs that do the following:
(1) Assess the youth victim's condition, including a review of the
extent of trauma suffered, physical and mental health, and the
status of age-appropriate developmental factors, such as educational
status.
(2) Serve exploited youth in a services-rich environment,
including trauma-informed counseling services.
(3) Research options, make recommendations, and work to find
solutions to provide specialized services and permanent placement
solutions for the youth.
(4) Provide staff who are trained to work with, and experienced in
working with, child sex trafficking victims.
(5) Include peer mentors in the design and provision of service
delivery.
(6) Provide a plan for how to structure a protective setting
secluded from the victim's trafficking environment, which could
include strategies such as a geographically remote location, staff
protective presence, delayed egress, or any combination of strategies
intended to protect the victim.
(c) A county that establishes a pilot program pursuant to this
section shall conduct at least one evaluation of the program's impact
and effectiveness. The evaluation shall include, but not be limited
to, monitoring the program's effect on youth being served, if any,
and its effectiveness with respect to program participants, including
outcome-related data for program participants compared to youth who
do not participate in the pilot. The county shall submit the
evaluation to the board.
(c)
( d) The pilot projects established pursuant
to this section shall be funded contingent upon an appropriation in
the annual Budget Act. Funds appropriated for these purposes shall be
administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2022, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2022, deletes or extends
that date.