BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session SB 6 (Galgiani) - Parole: medical parole: compassionate release ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: December 1, 2014 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 4 - 1 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: No | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: April 27, 2015 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: SB 6 would provide that an inmate convicted of first degree murder of a peace officer, as specified, is ineligible for compassionate release or medical parole. Fiscal Impact: Potential loss of significant future cost savings (General Fund) to the extent formerly eligible inmates convicted of first degree murder of a peace officer would have otherwise been granted medical parole or compassionate release. Based on historical releases, the average annual savings on CDCR custody costs alone for one inmate released from a hospital/nursing home setting on medical parole is $750,000 (General Fund). Background: Existing law provides that an inmate under the supervision of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) may be released for medical reasons under compassionate release or SB 6 (Galgiani) Page 1 of ? medical parole. The compassionate release provisions provide that if the Secretary of the CDCR, the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH), or both, determine that the conditions under which a prisoner would be released or receive treatment do not pose a threat to public safety, and the prisoner is terminally ill with an incurable condition and has less than six months to live, or the prisoner is permanently medically incapacitated and requires 24-hour care, the Secretary or the BPH may recommend to the court that the prisoner's sentence be recalled. (Penal Code (PC) § 1170(e)(1)-(2).) Existing law establishes the medical parole program whereby any prisoner who the head physician of a CDCR institution determines is permanently medically incapacitated with a medical condition that renders him or her permanently unable to perform activities of basic daily living, resulting in the prisoner requiring 24-hour care, and that incapacitation did not exist at the time of sentencing, shall be granted medical parole if the BPH determines that the conditions under which the prisoner would be released would not reasonably pose a threat to public safety. (PC § 3550(a)) Existing law provides that the compassionate release and medical parole provisions do not apply to a prisoner sentenced to death or a term of life without the possibility of parole. Additionally, the medical parole provisions do not apply to a prisoner serving a sentence for which parole, as specified, is prohibited by any initiative statute. Proposed Law: This bill would specify that, in addition to the eligibility restrictions under existing law, the following inmates are ineligible for release on medical parole or compassionate release: A prisoner who was convicted of first degree murder if the victim was a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 of Title 3, who was killed while engaged in the performance of his or her duties, and the individual knew, or reasonably should have known, that the victim was a peace officer engaged in the performance of his or her duties. The victim was a peace officer, as defined, or had been a SB 6 (Galgiani) Page 2 of ? peace officer, and was intentionally murdered in retaliation for the performance of his or her official duties, and the defendant was sentenced on or after January 1, 2016. Prior Legislation: SB 1284 (Galgiani) 2014 was substantially similar to this measure. This bill stalled in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety. AB 68 (Maienschein) Chapter 764/2013 requires the CDCR to give notice at least 30 days prior to a medical parole hearing or medical parole release, as specified, to the county of commitment and the county of proposed release. SB 1399 (Leno) Chapter 405/2010 provides for medical parole of CDCR inmates under the following circumstances: 1) the inmate is found by the head physician to be permanently medically incapacitated with a medical condition that renders him or her permanently unable to perform activities of daily living, resulting in the need for 24-hour care, and 2) the Board of Parole Hearings also makes a determination that the conditions under which the prisoner would be released would not reasonably pose a threat to public safety. Staff Comments: By placing additional restrictions on the population of prison inmates eligible for medical parole or compassionate release, this bill could result in a significant future loss of General Fund cost savings, potentially in the low millions of dollars annually, that otherwise would have been afforded to CDCR as a result of eliminating the ability to reduce costly security for incapacitated inmates and potentially for the Receiver to receive federal reimbursement through Medi-Cal for medical care in certain circumstances. Data from CDCR indicates over 500 commitments to state prison annually for the crime of first degree murder. However, specific information on whether the victim was a peace officer is not available for this population. To the extent even one inmate could potentially be impacted by the provisions of this bill SB 6 (Galgiani) Page 3 of ? would result in a significant loss of cost savings. The Receiver's Office has indicated costs of about $750,000 (General Fund) per year to guard one inmate, who is not on parole, in a hospital or nursing home setting. As CDCR policy requires an inmate still serving his or her sentence to continue to be guarded, restricting medical parole for additional inmates will restrict CDCR's ability to remove custodial costs for these inmates. Placing a person on medical parole removes the guarding component, irrespective of whether or not the Receiver's Office is reimbursed for medical care by the federal government. The Three-Judge Court, in its February 10, 2014, order granting a two-year extension to reduce the in-state adult inmate population to 137.5 percent of design capacity, ordered the CDCR to immediately implement several population reduction measures, including consulting with the Receiver's Office to finalize and implement an expanded parole process for medically incapacitated inmates. The provisions of this measure appear inconsistent with the Court's order. -- END --