BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1906|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1906
Author: Melendez (R)
Introduced:2/11/16
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/10/16
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Monning, Stone
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 3/28/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Mental health: sexually violent predators
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the Department of State Hospitals
(DSH) to request that a district attorney file a petition for
commitment of a person as a sexually violent predator (SVP)
within 20 days of the determination by DSH that the person meets
the criteria for commitment as an SVP.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Provides for the civil commitment for psychiatric and
psychological treatment of a prison inmate found to be an SVP
after the person has served his or her prison commitment.
(Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600, et seq.)
2) Defines a "sexually violent predator" as "a person who has
been convicted of a sexually violent offense against at least
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one victim, and who has a diagnosed mental disorder that
makes the person a danger to the health and safety of others
in that it is likely that he or she will engage in sexually
violent criminal behavior." (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600,
subd. (a)(1).)
3) Permits a person committed as an SVP to be held for an
indeterminate term upon commitment. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §
6604.1.)
4) Requires that a person found to have been an SVP and
committed to the DSH have a current examination on his or her
mental condition made at least yearly. The report shall
include consideration of conditional release to a less
restrictive alternative or an unconditional release is in the
best interest of the person and also what conditions can be
imposed to adequately protect the community. (Welf. & Inst.
Code, § 6604.9.)
5) Allows an SVP to seek conditional release with the
authorization of the DSH Director when DSH determines that
the person's condition has so changed that he or she no
longer meets the SVP criteria, or when conditional release is
in the person's best interest and conditions to adequately
protect the public can be imposed. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §
6607.)
6) Allows a person committed as an SVP to petition for
conditional release or an unconditional discharge any time
after one year of commitment, notwithstanding the lack of
recommendation or concurrence by the Director of DSH. (Welf.
& Inst. Code, § 6608, subd. (a).)
7) Provides that, if the court deems the conditional release
petition not frivolous, the court is to give notice of the
hearing date to the attorney designated to represent the
county of commitment, the retained or appointed attorney for
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the committed person, and the Director of DSH at least 30
court days before the hearing date. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §
6608, subd. (b).)
8) Requires the court to first obtain the written
recommendation of the director of the treatment facility
before taking any action on the petition for conditional
release if the is made without the consent of the director of
the treatment facility. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6608, subd.
(c).)
9) Provides that the court shall hold a hearing to determine
whether the person committed would be a danger to the health
and safety of others in that it is likely that he or she will
engage in sexually violent criminal behavior due to his or
her diagnosed mental disorder if under supervision and
treatment in the community. Existing law further provides
that the attorney designated the county of commitment shall
represent the state and have the committed person evaluated
by experts chosen by the state and that the committed person
shall have the right to the appointment of experts, if he or
she so requests. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6608, subd. (e).)
10)Requires the court to order the committed person placed with
an appropriate forensic conditional release program operated
by the state for one year if the court at the hearing
determines that the committed person would not be a danger to
others due to his or her diagnosed mental disorder while
under supervision and treatment in the community. Existing
law further requires a substantial portion of the
state-operated forensic conditional release program to
include outpatient supervision and treatment. Provides that
the court retains jurisdiction of the person throughout the
course of the program. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6608, subd.
(e).)
11)Provides that if the court denies the petition to place the
person in an appropriate forensic conditional release
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program, the person may not file a new application until one
year has elapsed from the date of the denial. (Welf. & Inst.
Code, § 6608, subd. (h).)
12)Allows, after a minimum of one year on conditional release,
the committed person, with or without the recommendation or
concurrence of the Director of DSH, to petition the court for
unconditional discharge, as specified. (Welf. & Inst. Code,
§ 6608, subd. (k).)
This bill requires the Director of DSH to forward a request to a
county that a petition be filed for a person to be committed to
DSH for SVP treatment no later than 20 calendar days prior to
the scheduled release date of the person.
Background
The SVP law was enacted in 1995 in response to concerns that
dangerous sex offenders were being released into the community
after they served determinate sentences in prison. The law is
especially complicated. There are numerous steps and entities
involved in the process of assessing and committing a person to
DSH as an SVP. The law has been frequently amended to prevent
or forestall release of an alleged or committed SVP due to some
problem or anomaly arising from the complexity of process. For
example, the law was amended by two separate urgency bills in
the 1999-2000 legislative session. One bill allowed the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
to hold a potential SVP 45 days past his parole release date so
that DSH experts could complete required SVP evaluations. The
other bill allowed commitment proceedings to proceed despite a
mistake in law or fact by CDCR as to application of parole
rules. In 2015, the law was amended to give prosecutors access
to material relied upon by evaluators in producing updated
evaluations of alleged SVPs. Other amendments from 1999 through
2015 have concerned notice requirements to communities where an
SVP will be released and virtually every other aspect of the
law.
Comments
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Page 5
According to the author:
When the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH)
determine that an individual in custody may be an SVP, based
on their commitment offense and a review of their social,
criminal, and institutional history, the individual is
referred to the DSH for a full SVP evaluation. Following that
evaluation, if DSH determines that the individual is an SVP,
the Director of DSH is required to request that the District
Attorney or County Counsel in the county in which the person
was convicted file a petition for commitment. The filing of
that petition begins a civil commitment process, which can
lead to the individual being confined at Coalinga State
Hospital to receive treatment until it is determined that they
no longer pose a risk of re-offense.
The SVP Act contains a statutory timeline for each step of the
evaluation process, as well as time limits for the filing of
the petition and certain court proceedings. It does not,
however, contain a time frame for the submission of the
request for the filing of a petition to the DA or County
Counsel. Because of this, DSH often submits filing materials
less than 48 hours before the release of an inmate who has
already been determined to qualify as an SVP. The result of
these late requests is that the prosecuting agency bears the
burden of filing a case and transporting a defendant at the
last minute, at an enormous cost and use of resources. The
better and long accepted operating practice is for DSH to
submit the filing in time for the DA to be able to
meaningfully review the request, file the petition, and
arrange for transportation of the alleged SVP to the county
where trial will be held. In at least one instance in Los
Angeles County, the filing request was submitted too late for
the filing of a petition. In several instances, the
supporting documents that are necessary for the filing of a
petition were not certified and there was little to no time to
correct this egregious error by DSH.
The simple solution to this problem is to create a statutory
requirement that DSH submit the request for the filing of a
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petition no fewer than 20 days prior to the release of a
person determined to be an SVP. This provides the attorneys
with time to meaningfully review and prepare a petition, and
protects public safety by helping to ensure that nobody slips
through the cracks due to a last minute filing request.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified5/11/16)
California District Attorneys Association (source)
California State Sheriffs' Association
OPPOSITION: (Verified5/11/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 3/28/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo
Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove,
Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chang, Dahle, Eggman, McCarty, O'Donnell
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Prepared by: Jerome McGuire / PUB. S. /
5/11/16 15:58:18
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