BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 6
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 6
(Galgiani) - As Amended June 27, 2016
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|Policy |Public Safety |Vote:|7 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill exempts from medical parole and compassionate release
eligibility a prisoner who was convicted of the murder of a
peace officer, as provided, and applies the provisions of this
bill retroactively.
FISCAL EFFECT:
It is impossible to determine a fiscal impact of this bill, or
when the fiscal impact would occur. Due to the number of first
degree murder cases, CDCR does not maintain statistical data on
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the number of murder victims that were of peace officers. They
do know that there are seven inmates convicted between 1970 and
2007 for murder in the second degree of a peace officer; four of
these inmates have sentences of life without the possibility of
parole. Therefore, there are three known inmates who will be
excluded from compassionate release or medical parole, but they
may not requested either. However, inmates in either category
are very expensive patients, their annual medical cost could be
anywhere from $160,000 to over $1 million.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. Under current law, if the Secretary of the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Board of
Parole Hearings (BPH), or both determine that a prisoner has
six months or less to live; that the conditions under which
the prisoner would be released do not pose a threat to public
safety and that the prisoner is permanently medically
incapacitated, the Secretary of CDCR or BPH may recommend to
the court that the prisoner's sentence be recalled. However,
current law exempts from compassionate release a prisoner
sentenced to death or a term of life without the possibility
of parole. In 2015, BPH referred nine cases to the court for
review, and eleven cases in each of the two prior years.
Existing law also establishes the medical parole program
whereby any prisoner who the head physician of the institution
where the prisoner is located determines is permanently
medically incapacitated with a medical condition that renders
him or her permanently unable to perform activities of basic
daily living, and results in the prisoner requiring 24-hour
care, and that incapacitation did not exist at the time of
sentencing, shall be granted medical parole if BPH determines
that the conditions under which the prisoner would be released
would not reasonably pose a threat to public safety. However,
medical parole does not apply to any prisoner sentenced to
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death or LWOP or to any inmate who is serving a sentence for
which medical parole is prohibited by any initiative statute.
In 2015, 20 cases were approved, 18 cases in 2014 and 8 cases
in 2013.
2)Purpose. According to the author, "The original compassionate
release legislation (SB 1399 from 2010) was intended to
prohibit compassionate release for anyone convicted of murder
against an officer - as it prohibited compassionate release
for anyone serving a death sentence, or sentence of life
without the possibility of parole.
"However, there was a multi-year period in the 1970s where
California had neither a death penalty nor a sentence of life
without the possibility of parole available. For that period
of time, persons convicted of first degree murder of a police
officer were sentenced to life with parole.
"The honorable work that our men and women in law enforcement
perform on a daily basis is crucial to ensuring that our
neighbors and families live in safe communities. Senate Bill 6
is necessary to guarantee that individuals convicted of these
heinous crimes serve their entire sentences given to them by a
jury of their peers."
3)Comment. SB 6 excludes prisoners from medical parole based
solely on the nature of the crime. This is contrary to the
purpose of the medical parole law and contrary to the law on
parole suitability in general. The California Supreme Court
has held that parole suitability cannot be based solely on the
nature of the crime. Parole suitability must be based on an
evaluation of several factors to determine the current
dangerousness to the public.
4)Support. According to California Narcotic Officers' of
California, the sponsor of this bill, "Senate Bill 6 will
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close a loophole that currently exists in California's Medical
Parole and Compassionate Release laws.
5)Opposition. According to the American Civil Liberties Union,
"The Board [of Parole Hearings] is fully capable of screening
the petitions to determine who is appropriate to be released
in the totality of circumstances, including the offense the
person committed. Given that the intent of medical parole is
to reduce the financial strain of caring for medically
incapacitated inmates, the Legislature should not start
excepting out specified offenses for which an inmate is not
eligible, despite being medically incapacitated. If an inmate
meets the requirements specified in the law, he or she should
be eligible for release."
Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes / APPR. / (916)
319-2081