BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 261 (Hancock) - Youth offender parole hearings
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|Version: March 24, 2015 |Policy Vote: PUB. S. 5 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 28, 2015 |Consultant: Jolie Onodera |
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SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill
Summary: SB 261 would expand the youth offender parole process
to include persons who committed their crimes before attaining
the age of 23, as specified. This bill requires the Board of
Parole Hearings (BPH) to complete all parole hearings for
eligible individuals as of the effective date of this measure by
July 1, 2017.
Fiscal Impact (as approved May 28,
2015):
Immediately eligible caseload : Significant one-time costs to
the BPH of $1.3 million (General Fund) to complete risk
assessments and conduct parole hearings for 800 inmates
estimated to be eligible upon the bill's effective date.
Future caseload : Significant future annual costs, likely in
the hundreds of thousands of dollars or greater (General
Fund), to conduct hearings for inmates as they become
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eligible. The magnitude of costs would be dependent upon the
rate at which BPH conducts hearings, as there is no timeframe
mandated for prospectively eligible inmates. The CDCR
estimates an additional 5,600 inmates would be added to the
BPH's hearing calendar over the next several years. An
additional 3,000 inmates are estimated to be within the BPH's
hearing cycle currently and would be eligible to request to
advance their next hearing date, as specified.
Regulations : One-time costs of about $100,000 to review and
re-write regulations.
Reduced writs : Potential offset to an unknown degree by state
trial court savings as a result of an accompanying reduction
in writs of Habeas Corpus, by which inmates challenge
convictions and/or sentences.
Future incarceration savings : Potential cost savings of $0.2
to $0.5 million (General Fund) for every 20 to 50 inmates
released or sentences reduced. Savings would grow as the years
they otherwise would have served compound. Over ten years, the
savings could increase to $2 to $5 million assuming the
inmates would have served ten additional years. Minor
offsetting increase in parole costs.
Background: Existing law creates the youth offender parole hearing, which
is administered by the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) for the
purpose of reviewing the parole suitability of any inmate who
was under 18 years of age at the time of his or her controlling
offense. (Penal Code (PC) § 3051.)
Existing law provides that the timing for the youth offender
parole hearing is dependent on the sentence: if the controlling
offense was a determinate sentence, the offender shall be
eligible for release after 15 years; if the controlling offense
was a life term less than 25 years, the person is eligible for
release after 20 years; and, if the controlling offense was 25
years or more, the person is eligible for release after 25
years. (PC § 3051(b).)
Existing law provides that if the youth offender is found
suitable for parole at the youthful offender parole hearing,
then the youth offender shall be released on parole. (PC § 3051
(e).)
According to the CDCR April 2015 Status and Benchmark Report to
the Three-Judge Court:
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The State continues to implement Senate Bill 260 (2013),
which allows inmates whose crimes were committed as
minors to appear before the Board of Parole Hearings (the
Board) to demonstrate their suitability for release after
serving at least fifteen years of their sentence. From
January 1, 2014 through March 31, 2015, the Board held
534 youth offender hearings, resulting in 158 grants, 328
denials, 46 stipulations to unsuitability, and 2 split
votes that required referral to the full Board for
further consideration. An additional 225 were scheduled
during this time period, but were waived, postponed,
continued, or cancelled. All available inmates who were
immediately eligible for a hearing when the law took
effect on January 1, 2014, have had a hearing date or
have one scheduled on or before July 1, 2015, as required
by the terms of Senate Bill 260. In addition, nearly all
youth offenders who received a grant prior to January 1,
2014, have reached their minimum eligible parole dates
and have been processed for release from their life term
by the Board.
Proposed Law:
This bill would extend the existing parole process for persons
sentenced to prison for crimes committed before attaining 18
years of age, to persons sentenced to prison for crimes
committed before attaining 23 years of age, as specified. This
bill provides that those eligible for a youthful offender parole
hearing on the effective date of this bill shall have their
hearing by July 1, 2017.
Prior
Legislation: SB 260 (Hancock) Chapter 312/2013 established a
parole process for persons sentenced to prison for crimes
committed before attaining 18 years of age.
AB 1276 (Bloom) Chapter 590/2014 requires the CDCR to conduct a
youth offender Institutional Classification Committee (ICC)
review at reception to provide special classification
consideration for every youth offender.
SB 9 (Yee) Chapter 828/2012 authorizes a person who was under 18
years of age at the time of committing an offense for which the
person was sentenced to LWOP to submit a petition for recall and
SB 261 (Hancock) Page 3 of
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re-sentencing to the sentencing court, as specified.
SB 1223 (Kuehl) 2004 would have authorized a court to review and
suspend or reduce the sentence of a person convicted as a minor
in adult criminal court and sentenced to state prison after the
person has either served 10 years in prison or attained the age
of 25. This bill was held on the Suspense File of the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
Staff
Comments: The CDCR has indicated one-time near term costs of
approximately $4.6 million assuming approximately 800 inmates
would immediately be eligible for a parole hearing. The CDCR
estimates that an additional 5,600 inmates would be added to the
BPH's hearing calendar over the next several years. The BPH
would be required to give these inmates a consultation about
five years prior to their initial parole hearing. An additional
3,000 inmates are estimated to already be within the BPH's
hearing cycle and would be eligible to request to advance their
next hearing date based on the requirement for the BPH to give
"great weight" to the factors of youth, their growth and
maturity since the crime.
Components of the one-time $4.6 million cost for the 800
immediately eligible inmates:
Risk Assessments : The BPH would need to complete 800
comprehensive risk assessments for the backlog of hearings over
the course of eight months at an estimated cost of $2.7 million.
Interpreters : Minor costs of less than $40,000 to provide this
service for a small percentage of the 800 hearings.
Transcripts : At an average cost of $570 per hearing, and
assuming 10 percent of the 800 cases will be postponed or
continued, transcription services would cost approximately
$400,000.
State-appointed counsel : The BPH is required to provide each
inmate with counsel. State-appointed attorneys receive $400 per
hearing. For 800 hearings, the cost would be $320,000.
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Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners : To handle an additional
100 hearings per month, it is estimated the BPH would require
additional resources at a cost of about $1.1 million.
Attorney III : To dedicate one staff, for six months, to review
each possible youth offender scheduled for a hearing for
eligibility as a youth offender and to respond to inmate counsel
on individual cases in which the inmate's status as a youth
offender is in question. In many cases, determining eligibility
requires the BPH to obtain birth certificates and additional
court sentencing documents. The BPH would, therefore, request
funding for six months to handle this additional workload at a
cost of $85,000.
CDCR indicates this bill would create substantial ongoing
workload due to the increase in consultations the BPH would be
required to conduct and additional hearings added to the BPH
hearing calendar in the future as a result. Other ongoing costs
would include increases in processing inmate petitions to
advance hearing dates, conducting administrative reviews to
advance hearing dates, and correctional counselor duties for
parole hearings. Finally, the BPH and CDCR indicate the need to
modify existing automation systems to process offenders under
the provisions of this bill. While the total costs could not be
quantified at the time of this analysis, they would likely be
substantial.
The costs of this measure would be offset in whole or in part by
potentially significant future costs savings to the extent a
number of offenders are granted parole and released as a result
of this measure, resulting in reduced incarceration costs that
otherwise would have been incurred under existing law.
Author amendments (as adopted May 28, 2015):
Extend the time period within which parole hearings may
be completed for individuals sentenced to determinate terms
to July 1, 2021.
Require BPH to conduct the consultation by July 1, 2017,
for all individuals sentenced to determinate terms and who
become entitled to have their parole suitability considered
at a youth offender parole hearing.
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