BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 517 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 517 (Monning) As Introduced February 26, 2015 Majority vote SENATE VOTE: 34-1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Public Safety |7-0 |Quirk, Melendez, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, | | | | |Lopez, Low, Santiago | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY: Authorizes a court to release from custody a person on probation, mandatory supervision, postrelease community supervision (PRCS), or parole, who is alleged to have violated the terms of supervision under any terms and conditions the court deems appropriate unless the person is serving a period of flash incarceration. SB 517 Page 2 EXISTING LAW: 1)Requires all persons paroled before October 1, 2011, to remain under the supervision of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) until jurisdiction is terminated by operation of law or until parole is discharged. 2)Requires the following persons released from state prison on or after July 1, 2013, to be subject to parole under the supervision of CDCR: a) A person who committed a serious felony listed in Penal Code Section 1192.7(c); b) A person who committed a violent felony listed in Penal Code Section 667.5(c); c) A person serving a sentence under the "Three Strikes" law; d) A person classified as a high-risk sex offender; e) A person determined to be a mentally disordered offender; f) A person required to register as a sex offender and subject to a parole term exceeding three years at the time of the commission of the offense for which he or she is being released; and, SB 517 Page 3 g) A person subject to lifetime parole at the time of the commission of the offense for which he or she is being released. 3)States that all other offenders released from prison on or after July 1, 2013, to be placed on PRCS under the supervision of a county agency, such as a probation department. 4)Limits PRCS to three years. 5)Provides for intermediate sanctions for violating the terms of PRCS, including "flash incarceration" for up to 10 days. 6)Specifies that if PRCS is revoked, the offender may be incarcerated in the county jail for a period not to exceed 180 days for each custodial sanction. 7)Prohibits the return of an offender who violates conditions of PRCS to prison. 8)Specifies that a parolee held in custody for a pending parole violation before October 1, 2011, may be returned to state prison for the violation for period not to exceed 12 months. 9)Specifies that a parolee held in custody for a pending parole violation on or after October 1, 2011, will be returned to county jail, rather than state prison, for up to 180 days of incarceration per revocation. SB 517 Page 4 10)Authorizes a county agency responsible for PRCS to determine additional appropriate conditions of supervision consistent with public safety, including continuous electronic monitoring, order the provision of appropriate rehabilitation and treatment services, determine appropriate incentives, and determine and order appropriate responses to alleged violations, which can include, but shall not be limited to, immediate, structured, and intermediate sanctions up to and including referral to a reentry court, or flash incarceration in a county jail. Periods of flash incarceration are encouraged as one method of punishment for violations of an offender's condition of post release supervision. 11)Defines "flash incarceration" as a period of detention in county jail due to a violation of an offender's conditions of post release supervision. The length of the detention period can range between one and 10 consecutive days. Flash incarceration is a tool that may be used by each county agency responsible for post release supervision. Shorter, but if necessary more frequent, periods of detention for violations of an offender's post release supervision conditions shall appropriately punish an offender while preventing the disruption in a work or home establishment that typically arises from longer term revocations. FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. This bill has been keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel. COMMENTS: According to the author, "Prior to the implementation of criminal justice realignment under AB 109 (Budget Committee), Chapter 15, Statutes of 2011, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had the authority to issue arrest warrants for parole violations along with issuing and recalling parole holds. While the courts were given the statutory authority to issue arrest warrants for parole violations under realignment, the legislation failed to give explicit statutory SB 517 Page 5 authority for the courts to recall a parole hold. Without this statutory authority, a supervising parole or probation officer has the sole authority over custody decisions of a supervised individual in jail on a parole hold. "When a supervised person is rearrested and placed in custody, the supervising officer can either impose sanctions on the offender, such as flash incarceration, or petition the courts to have their parole revoked. Until that happens, however, the courts have no statutory authority to release the individual from the parole hold. Additionally, an October 2014 appellate court decision, Williams v. Superior Court (2014) 230 Cal.App.4th 636, now requires the supervising officer to act within 10 days of placing a supervised person on a parole hold, by either imposing sanctions or initiating revocation proceedings with the courts. "SB 517 will provide the courts with discretion when determining the custody status of an individual on probation, parole, or post release community supervision who is placed in county jail on a parole hold for violating their terms of supervision. This measure will correct an oversight of realignment and ensure that courts have the same authority CDCR had prior to realignment." Analysis Prepared by: Gregory Pagan / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0000960 SB 517 Page 6