BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 722|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 722
Author: Bates (R), et al.
Amended: 8/31/15
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 4/28/15
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Leno, Liu, McGuire, Monning, Stone
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 40-0, 6/2/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner,
Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-1, 9/2/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Sex offenders: GPS monitoring: removal
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill makes it a felony punishable by imprisonment
in the state prison, as specified, for a person to willfully
remove or disable, or permit another person to remove or
disable, an electronic, global positioning system (GPS), or
other monitoring device, if the device was affixed as a
condition of parole, postrelease community supervision (PRCS),
or probation as a result of a conviction for specified sex
offenses, and if specified criteria are met.
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Page 2
Assembly Amendments delete a provision providing for a
rebuttable presumption that a person intended to evade
supervision in the context of the provisions of this bill.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Authorizes, generally, the use of electronic monitoring or GPS
devices in the criminal justice system, as specified.
2)Provides, generally, that removing or otherwise defeating the
operation of a GPS device is a violation of parole or
probation, or subject to return to custody from an alternative
custody program.
3)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. (Penal Code § 3010.10.)
4)Includes an enhanced sentencing structure that applies to
crimes of rape, oral copulation, sodomy, and sexual
penetration committed by force, duress or threats; lewd
conduct with a child under the age of 14 and continuous sexual
abuse of a child which, depending on the number and kinds of
aggravating factors attendant to the crime, require a term of
15 or 25-years-to-life, or life without parole for specified
crimes against a minor. (Pen. Code § 667.61.)
This bill:
1)Makes it a felony for a person to willfully remove or disable,
or permit another person to remove or disable, an electronic,
GPS, or other monitoring device affixed to his or her person,
if the device was affixed as a condition of parole, PRCS, or
probation as a result of a conviction of a specified sex
offense, if the person intended to evade supervision and
either does not surrender, or is not apprehended, within one
week of the issuance of a warrant for absconding.
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2)Provides that the felony is punishable by imprisonment in the
state prison for 16 months, or two or three years.
3)Excludes 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)Provides that the bill's provisions do not apply if the
removal or disabling of the device is authorized or required
by a court, by law enforcement, or by any other entity that is
responsible for placing the device upon the person or that has
the authority and responsibility to monitor the device.
5)Requires the terms of probation or parole for a person who
commits a violation of the bill's provision must include
participation and completion of a sex offender management
program.
Background
In October of 2014 the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
issued a report entitled, Special Review: Assessment of
Electronic Monitoring of Sex Offenders on Parole and the Impact
of Residency Restrictions. This review, conducted at the
request of the Senate Rules Committee, included the following
observations:
1)There exists little objective evidence to determine to what
extent, if any, GPS tracking is a crime deterrent, although a
small 2012 study funded by the National Institute of Justice
of 516 high-risk sex offenders found that offenders who were
not subjected to GPS monitoring had nearly three times more
sex-related parole violations than those who were monitored by
GPS technology. Despite the rarity of studies defending GPS
as a crime deterrent, the OIG's interviews with parole agents
and local law enforcement personnel found that they value GPS
technology as a tool for its ability to locate parolees, track
their movements, and provide valuable information in solving
crimes.
2)GPS technology adds to parole agents' workloads in certain
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aspects, while affording time-savings in others. For example,
agents spend approximately two hours reviewing and analyzing
parolees' tracks for a single-day period. On the other hand,
GPS facilitates mandatory face-to-face contacts between parole
agents and parolees by allowing the agent to locate parolees
more quickly than might be the case in locating a non-GPS
parolee.
3)Over 60 percent of parole agents who supervise sex-offender
parolees have caseloads exceeding established departmental
ratios (parolee-to-agent) when taking into consideration the
mix of high-risk vs low-risk parolees per caseload. In
addition, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has
a disparity of caseloads across its parole units, with 14 of
the 37 parole units that supervise sex offenders reporting
caseload sizes exceeding the Department's established ratios
for all agents assigned to those units. Simultaneously, five
other parole units report caseload sizes below the
department's established ratios for all of their parole
agents.
The OIG also presented data over the five years prior to the
report demonstrating that "transient sex offenders have
committed a majority of parole violations among parolee sex
offenders over the five year period. In fact, in the most
recently completed fiscal year (2013-14), over 76 percent of the
sex offender parolees whom the department charged with violating
their parole terms were transient. . . . According to the
parole administrators the OIG talked to, there are various
reasons transient sex offenders violate the conditions of their
parole more often than those with a residence. Among the
reasons voiced were increased prevalence of mental health
issues, lack of a stable support network, increased exposure to
drugs and prostitution on the streets, and challenges finding
employment."
Last session, the Legislature enacted SB 57 (Lieu, Chapter 776,
Statutes of 2013), which originally sought to enact a new felony
for felons being supervised in the community - either on PPCS --
who willfully defeated their GPS/electronic monitoring. That
bill was amended to impose the mandatory jail term now reflected
in existing law.
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FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1)Potential moderate ongoing cost in excess the $500,000 (GF) to
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. The annual contract bed rate is $29,000, if each year
10 parolees, less than one percent, were sentenced to two
years for disabling their GPS, the first-year costs would be
$290,000, and the ongoing cost would be $580,000.
2)Potential increase cost to CDCR, and nonreimbursable county
probation costs, for additional persons required to
participate and complete a sex offender management program.
3)Potential decrease in local incarceration costs if individuals
subject to parole revocation are charged with the state prison
felony instead.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/2/15)
California District Attorneys Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
Crime Victims United of California
Office of the San Diego District Attorney
Orange County Board of Supervisors
Orange County District Attorney's Office
Orange County Sheriff's Department
Peace Officers Research Association of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/2/15)
American Civil Liberties Union
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California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
California Public Defenders Association
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The author states in part:
SB 722 is needed in order to send the message to
convicted sex offenders that cutting off or altering
their ankle bracelet is a serious offense and will not be
taken lightly. The two men mentioned earlier are known
to have re-offended on two different occasions. When
they first cut off their devices and fled to Nevada, they
should have been prosecuted with more than just a short
few months in county jail as this was a deliberate
attempt to run from law enforcement.
Additionally, the offenses listed in SB 722 deliberately
spell out the most serious, egregious sex crimes. These
offenses are rape, spousal rape, sexual penetration, lewd
or lascivious acts and children, sodomy, oral copulation,
and continuous sexual abuse of a child. SB 722 is needed
today more than ever to ensure that justice is being
served to those that defy law enforcement.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: California Attorneys for Criminal
Justice, which opposes this bill, submits in part:
In the last two legislative sessions, our laws have been
changed to provide certain oversight on tracked sex
offenders. However, there has been insufficient time to
evaluation whether the implementation of this new law has
proven to be effective at deterring persons from
disabling or removing their GPS devices. Notwithstanding
these laws, sending a person back to prison for a minor
offense does not address the root issues of persons being
ill-prepared to reenter their communities upon release,
The enormous cost of incarceration and parole revocations
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for even minor offenders continue to contribute to budget
constraints and fuel public cries for fiscal reform.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-1, 9/2/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Perea, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NOES: Quirk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Eggman, Patterson
Prepared by:Alison Anderson / PUB. S. /
9/2/15 15:57:42
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