BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 722 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 722 (Bates) As Amended August 31, 2015 Majority vote SENATE VOTE: 40-0 ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Public Safety |5-1 |Melendez, Lackey, |Quirk | | | |Lopez, Low, Santiago | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Appropriations |16-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | | | | |Bloom, Bonta, | | | | |Calderon, Chang, | | | | |Nazarian, Eggman, | | | | |Gallagher, Eduardo | | | | |Garcia, Holden, | | | | |Jones, Rendon, | | | | |Wagner, Weber, Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ SB 722 Page 2 SUMMARY: Creates a new state prison felony for any person who willfully disables an electronic, global positioning system (GPS) if the device was affixed as a condition of parole, postrelease community supervision (PRCS), or probation as a result of a conviction for a specified sex offense. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires that the person must have intended to evade supervision and either does not surrender, or is not apprehended, within one week of the issuance of a warrant for absconding. 2)Makes the violation of this provision a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years. 3)Exempts the removal or disabling of a monitoring device by a physician, emergency medical services technician, or by any other emergency response or medical personnel when doing so is necessary during the course of medical treatment of the person subject to the device. 4)Requires the terms of probation or parole of a person who has committed a violation of these provisions to include participation and completion of a sex offender management program. EXISTING LAW: 1)Authorizes the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to utilize continuous electronic monitoring, including GPS, to electronically monitor the whereabouts of persons on parole as specified. SB 722 Page 3 2)Provides that every inmate who has been convicted for any felony violation of a registerable sex offense or any attempt to commit any of those offenses and who was committed to prison and released on parole shall be monitored by GPS for the term of his or her parole, or for the duration or any remaining part thereof, whichever period of time is less. 3)Provides, as enacted by Proposition 83 of 2006, that every inmate who has been convicted for any felony violation of a registerable sex offense, or any attempt to commit one of those sex offenses, and who is committed to prison and released on parole shall be monitored by GPS for life. 4)Provides that whenever a parole officer supervising an individual has reasonable cause to believe that the individual is not complying with the rules or conditions set forth for the use of continuous electronic monitoring as a supervision tool, the officer supervising the individual may, without a warrant of arrest, take the individual into custody for a violation of parole. 5)Authorizes the court, upon revocation of parole, to do any of the following: a) Reinstate parole with modification of conditions, if appropriate, including a period of incarceration; b) Revoke parole and order the parolee to serve time in the county jail; or, c) Refer the parolee to a reentry program or other SB 722 Page 4 evidence-based program. 6)Limits confinement in the county jail for up to 180 days of incarceration per revocation. 7)Provides that parolees who are registered sex offenders and are required to have a GPS device as a condition of parole shall be subject to parole revocation and incarcerated in a county jail for 180 days if they remove or otherwise disable the device, as specified. 8)Requires persons placed on parole or formal probation for an offense that requires the person to register as a sex offender to complete a sex offender management program. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: 1)Potential moderate ongoing cost in excess the $500,000 (General Fund) to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for additional state prison commitments. According CDCR records, approximately 1,200 inmates, in state prison for the qualifying crimes, were release onto parole in a 12-month period; they estimate approximately 200 parolees would be impacted. The annual contract bed rate is $29,000, if each year 200 parolees were sentenced to two years for disabling their GPS, the first-year costs would be $5.8 million, and the ongoing cost would be $11.6 million. 2)Potential increase cost to CDCR, and nonreimbursable county probation costs, for additional persons required to participate and complete a sex offender management program. SB 722 Page 5 3)Potential decrease in local incarceration costs if individuals subject to parole revocation are charged with the state prison felony instead. COMMENTS: According to the author, "SB 722 focuses upon high risk predatory sex offenders by limiting its application to the offenses deemed most egregious by the legislature when it approved the 'One Strike Rape' law. These offenses are: rape, spousal rape, foreign object rape, lewd or lascivious acts against children, sodomy, oral copulation, and continuous sexual abuse of a child. The premise behind 'One Strike Rape' is that one victim is enough. "The circumstances of some sex offenses are so aggravated that the state imposes a life sentence to avoid the potential of another victim. When a rapist or child molester cuts off his GPS device and evades the law the state has been put on notice that others are at great risk. SB 722 is needed because in the cases of Gordon and Cano the state simply waited for another victim." Analysis Prepared by: Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0001687 SB 722 Page 6