BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1730 (Atkins) - Human trafficking: minors
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|Version: August 1, 2016 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 1730 would require the Board of State and Community
Corrections (BSCC) to establish a five-year pilot project, to be
funded contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget
Act, in each of three specified counties to provide services to
youth that address the need for services relating to the
commercial exploitation of youth.
Fiscal
Impact:
Three-county pilot project : Potential major future costs in
the millions of dollars (General Fund) for the five-year pilot
project, which would be contingent upon an appropriation in
future annual Budget Acts, to fund programs and activities
operated by county probation departments and/or child welfare
agencies. To the extent the counties elect to have their child
welfare services agencies participate in the pilot, the funds
would appear to be an augmentation over the funding provided
annually for the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children
(CSEC) Program, which is administered by the DSS. The Budget
Act of 2016 includes an augmentation of $5 million General
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Fund beginning in 2016-17, for a total of $19 million General
Fund annually, to support this program. Currently, 38
counties, including the pilot counties, elect to participate
in the program.
BSCC : One-time minor costs (General Fund) to establish and
administer the pilot projects in Sacramento, San Diego, and
Santa Clara counties, should they elect to participate.
Potential future cost pressure (General Fund) to review pilot
evaluations. Evaluations are to be submitted by pilot counties
to the BSCC, however, the BSCC is not required to review,
evaluate, or submit a consolidated report to the Legislature.
Department of Social Services : Likely minor and absorbable
impact.
Background: Existing law establishes the federal and state Commercially
Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) Program, administered by the
Department of Social Services (DSS), to provide prevention,
intervention, services, and training for CSEC activities.
Counties that elect to participate in state CSEC activities
receive funding for specialized services for the CSEC
population. (Welfare and Institutions Code §§ 16524.7-16524.10.)
A county electing to receive funding from the CSEC Program is
required to submit a plan to the DSS describing how the county
intends to utilize the funds to be allocated. The county plan is
required to include documentation indicating the county's
collaboration with county partner agencies and children-focused
entities, which must include the formation of a
multidisciplinary team to serve children.
Each county electing to receive funds from the CSEC Program is
additionally required to develop an interagency protocol to be
utilized in serving sexually exploited children, to be developed
by a team led by a representative of the county human services
department and must include representatives from county
probation, county mental health, county public health
department, the juvenile court. The team may also include, but
shall not be limited to, representatives from local education
agencies, local law enforcement, survivors of sexual
exploitation and trafficking, and other providers as necessary.
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Proposed Law:
This bill would require the BSCC to establish a pilot project
in each of the Counties of Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa
Clara to create a program to provide services to youth within
each county's jurisdiction that addresses the need for services
relating to the commercial sexual exploitation of youth.
Specifically, this bill:
Provides that the purpose of the pilot project is to
test a service model that would produce improved outcomes
for youth victims of human trafficking.
Specifies that each county that elects to participate in
the pilot project may determine whether that county's
probation department or county child welfare agency, or
both the county probation department and the county child
welfare agency, shall participate in the pilot project.
Requires the programs that receive funding to utilize,
for purposes of the program, only facilities that are
licensed by the State Department of Social Services.
Programs that receive funding may include, but shall not be
limited to, programs that do the following:
o 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.
o Serve exploited youth in a services-rich
environment, including trauma-informed counseling
services.
o Research options, make recommendations, and
work to find solutions to provide specialized services
and permanent placement solutions for the youth.
o Provide staff who are trained to work with,
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and experienced in working with, child sex trafficking
victims.
o Include peer mentors in the design and
provision of service delivery.
o 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.
Requires a county that establishes a pilot program to
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 is required to submit
the evaluation to the BSCC.
Provides that the pilot projects shall be funded
contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act.
Requires funds appropriated for these purposes to be
administered by the BSCC.
Repeals the bill's provisions on January 1, 2022, unless
a later enacted statute deletes or extends that date.
Related
Legislation: SB 826 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review)
Chapter 23/2016, the Budget Act of 2016, among its numerous
provisions, appropriates $14 million General Fund to support the
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CSEC program.
SB 1322 (Mitchell) 2016 would prohibit a minor from being
arrested for a prostitution offense, as specified, and would
provide that a commercially exploited child pursuant to the
bill's provisions may be adjudged a dependent child of the
court, as specified, and may be taken into temporary custody if
the conditions allowing temporary custody without warrant are
met. SB 1322 has been ordered to Third Reading on the Assembly
Floor.
SB 1064 (Hancock) 2016 would eliminate the sunset date on the
discretionary Sexually Exploited Minors Pilot Project in Alameda
and Los Angeles Counties, to operate indefinitely. SB 1064 would
expand the definition of "commercially sexually exploited minor"
served by the program to include, among others, minors who have
been adjudged dependents of the juvenile court. SB 1064 has been
ordered to Third Reading on the Assembly Floor.
AB 1675 (Stone) 2016 would require a probation officer, in a
case in which a minor is alleged to have committed the crime of
solicitation, prostitution, or loitering with the intent to
commit prostitution, to provide informal supervision for the
minor, instead of requesting that the prosecutor file a petition
declaring the minor to be a ward of the juvenile court. AB 1675
is scheduled to be heard today by this Committee.
AB 1731 (Atkins) 2016 would create the Statewide Interagency
Human Trafficking Task Force to gather statewide data on human
trafficking, to recommend interagency protocols and best
practices for training and outreach to law enforcement, victim
service providers, and other state and private sector employees
likely to encounter sex trafficking, and to evaluate and
implement approaches to increase public awareness about human
trafficking. AB 1731 is scheduled to be heard today by this
Committee.
AB 1760 (Santiago) 2016 would have directed a peace officer who
determines that a minor is a victim of human trafficking to
report such abuse, consult with a child welfare worker about a
safe placement for the minor, and transport the minor to such
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placement, unless the minor is otherwise arrested. AB 1760 was
held on the Suspense File of the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
AB 2723 (Chavez) 2016 would expand the population of children
eligible to be adjudged dependents of the juvenile court to
include a child who solicits or engages in any act of
prostitution or loiters in a public place with the intent to
commit prostitution, as specified. AB 2723 is pending hearing in
this Committee.
Prior Legislation: SB 855 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review) Chapter 29/2014 established the CSEC program, and
authorized annual state funding for county agencies electing to
participate in the program to provide services to child victims
of commercial sexual exploitation.
SB 794 (Committee on Human Services) Chapter 425/2015 provided
for numerous amendments to state law intended to seek compliance
with the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening
Families Act (P.L. 113-183), as specified.
Staff
Comments: The cost to support a five-year pilot project in the
Counties of Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Clara to provide
services to commercially exploited youth would be dependent on
the amount of the appropriation provided in the annual Budget
Act, which is unknown, but could be in the millions of dollars
over the duration of the pilot. This bill authorizes the pilot
counties to determine whether the probation department, the
county child welfare agency, or both entities are to participate
in the pilot project. Staff notes that should the pilot counties
elect to have the child welfare agency participate in the pilot,
any appropriated funding would appear to be an augmentation over
the existing budgeted funds for the CSEC program ($19 million
General Fund), as each of the pilot counties specified in this
measure are currently CSEC participating counties.
The advocacy proposal requesting a $19.7 million General Fund
augmentation in the budget to serve CSEC victims ultimately
resulted in a conference compromise of an additional $5 million
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in ongoing funding over the budgeted $14 million General Fund in
program funding.
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