BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 881 Hearing Date: April 19, 2016
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|Author: |Hertzberg |
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|Version: |March 17, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|MK |
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Subject: Vehicles: Violations
HISTORY
Source:Western Center on Law & Poverty
American Civil Liberties Union-California
A New Way of Life Reentry Project
California Public Defenders Association
East Bay Community Law Center
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Prior Legislation:SB 85 (Budget and Fiscal Review) Chapter 26,
Stats. 2015
SB 405 (Hertzberg) Chapter 385, Stats. 2015
Support: California Latinas for Reproductive Justice; Community
Housing Partnership; Courage Campaign; Drug Policy
Alliance; Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Forward
Together; Law Foundation of Silicon Valley; Mental
Health Advocacy Services; National Lawyers Guild;
Prison Policy Initiative; Rubicon Programs; San
Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program; W. Haywood Burns
Institute
Opposition:None known
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PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to eliminate suspension of driver's
licenses as a means of collecting court-ordered debt associated
with non-safety traffic offenses.
Existing law authorizes a court to notify the state Department
of Motor Vehicles (DMV) when an individual fails to pay a
traffic fine (FTP), fails to appear in court (FTA), or fails to
comply with a court order (FTC). Existing law requires the
court to notify the DMV if the individual later pays the fine.
(Vehicle Code § 40509.5)
Existing law requires DMV to suspend the driver's license of an
individual when DMV receives a notice from the court of an FTP
or FTA for that individual, until the individual's driving
record is cleared. (Vehicle Code §§ 13365 et seq.)
Existing law provides that, in addition to any other penalty in
infraction, misdemeanor, or felony cases, the court may impose a
civil assessment of up to $300 against a defendant who fails,
after notice and without good cause, to appear in court for
proceeding authorized by law or who fails to pay all or any
portion of a fine ordered by the court or to pay an installment
of bail. This assessment shall be deposited in the Trial Court
Trust fund. (Penal Code § 1214.1 (a))
This bill requires that the failure to appear be willful.
Existing law provides that the $300 assessment shall not become
effective until at least 20 calendar days after the court mails
a warning to the defendant by first-class mail to the address on
the notice to appear to the defendant's last known address. If
the defendant appears within the time specified in the notice
and shows good cause for the failure to appear or the failure to
pay a fine or installment of bail, the court shall vacate the
assessment. (Penal Code § 1241.1 (b))
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This bill deletes the language stating that if the person
appears within the 20 days the court shall vacate the
assessment.
This bill provides that payment of bail, fines, penalties, fees,
or a civil assessment shall not be required to schedule a court
hearing on a pending underlying charge.
Existing law provides that the $300 civil assessment shall be
subject to the due process requirements governing defense and
collection civil money judgements generally. (Penal Code §
1241.1(d))
This bill provides that the ability to pay the assessment shall
not be a prerequisite to arraignment, trial or other court
proceedings.
This bill makes a number of changes and deletions so that
license suspension will no longer occur when a person has a
failure to appear for a non-safety related traffic offense.
This bill provides that by July 1, 2017, at the request of the
suspended driver, DMV shall restore all driving suspensions that
were previously taken that would not be allowed under this bill.
This bill specifically states that it does not apply to reckless
driving or driving under the influence cases.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the past several years this Committee has scrutinized
legislation referred to its jurisdiction for any potential
impact on prison overcrowding. Mindful of the United States
Supreme Court ruling and federal court orders relating to the
state's ability to provide a constitutional level of health care
to its inmate population and the related issue of prison
overcrowding, this Committee has applied its "ROCA" policy as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress in reducing prison
overcrowding.
On February 10, 2014, the federal court ordered California to
reduce its in-state adult institution population to 137.5% of
design capacity by February 28, 2016, as follows:
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143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and,
137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.
In December of 2015 the administration reported that as "of
December 9, 2015, 112,510 inmates were housed in the State's 34
adult institutions, which amounts to 136.0% of design bed
capacity, and 5,264 inmates were housed in out-of-state
facilities. The current population is 1,212 inmates below the
final court-ordered population benchmark of 137.5% of design bed
capacity, and has been under that benchmark since February
2015." (Defendants' December 2015 Status Report in Response to
February 10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge
Court, Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).) One
year ago, 115,826 inmates were housed in the State's 34 adult
institutions, which amounted to 140.0% of design bed capacity,
and 8,864 inmates were housed in out-of-state facilities.
(Defendants' December 2014 Status Report in Response to February
10, 2014 Order, 2:90-cv-00520 KJM DAD PC, 3-Judge Court, Coleman
v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (fn. omitted).)
While significant gains have been made in reducing the prison
population, the state must stabilize these advances and
demonstrate to the federal court that California has in place
the "durable solution" to prison overcrowding "consistently
demanded" by the court. (Opinion Re: Order Granting in Part and
Denying in Part Defendants' Request For Extension of December
31, 2013 Deadline, NO. 2:90-cv-0520 LKK DAD (PC), 3-Judge Court,
Coleman v. Brown, Plata v. Brown (2-10-14). The Committee's
consideration of bills that may impact the prison population
therefore will be informed by the following questions:
Whether a proposal erodes a measure which has contributed
to reducing the prison population;
Whether a proposal addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy;
Whether a proposal addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
Whether a proposal corrects a constitutional problem or
legislative drafting error; and
Whether a proposal proposes penalties which are
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proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1. Need for the Bill
According to the author:
A ticket in California for an infraction such as a
broken tail light, expired tags, or fare evasion, can
ultimately lead to a suspended driver's license if a
defendant does not pay or make a court appearance.
Studies show that people who lose their driver's
licenses often lose their jobs, too. That makes it
tougher for them to pay any fines or fees charged for
minor traffic offenses. In addition, unnecessary
driver's license suspensions add to the burden - and
costs - of state agencies, law enforcement, and courts.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators has recommended that states eliminate
the use of license suspensions to collect debt while
keeping suspensions in place for serious public safety
violations. SB 881 follows this recommendation by
eliminating the authority to suspend licenses for
non-public safety violations. SB 881 maintains all
other suspension authorities in the Vehicle Code. SB
881 explicitly declares that reckless and drunk driving
offenses are not included in this change.
2. Background
The state Judicial Council annually adopts a uniform traffic
penalty schedule for all non-parking infractions outlined in the
Vehicle Code. In addition to a base fine there are an
additional approximately 310% penalty assessments added to the
base fine. For many individuals, a traffic violation can become
prohibitively expensive and can lead to a suspended driver's
license. To address this concern, the 2015-16 budget agreement
authorized an 18-month traffic amnesty program for delinquent
debt. Under this program, the $300 civil assessment imposed by
collection programs for an FTA or FTP is waived. Individuals
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then receive a 50% reduction in the total amount of
court-ordered debt owed for traffic infractions and certain
traffic misdemeanors as long as specified criteria are met. In
addition, participants in the amnesty program, as well as
individuals currently making payments for the same violations
included in the amnesty program, can have their driver's
licenses reinstated. Moreover, SB 405 (Hertzberg, Chapter 385,
Statutes of 2015) requires courts to allow individuals to
schedule court proceedings even if bail or civil assessment has
been imposed.
2. $300 Civil Assessment
When a person fails to appear in addition to the fines, penalty
assessments and other penalties, the courts impose a civil
assessment of $300. This bill would require that the failure to
appear be willful. Currently, a court has no ability to waive
the civil assessment even if the court believes the person had a
valid reason to fail to appear.
Under existing statute a person must pay the civil assessments
before challenging a traffic violation in court. However,
California Rules of Court, rule 4.105 provides for appearances
at arraignment and trial in infraction cases without prior
deposit of bail and includes provisions requiring that courts
consider the totality of the circumstances in determining bail
amounts for infractions.
This bill makes it clear in statute that the ability to pay the
civil assessment shall not be required to schedule a court
hearing on the pending underlying charge.
3. No Suspended License for a Failure to Appear
Under existing law a person who fails to pay a traffic citation
is found to be guilty of failing to appear. The court then
notifies the DMV and the person's license is suspended or they
can't renew their license until they take care of paying their
fines. This bill removes the ability to suspend or deny a
driver's license for failing to appear on a non-safety traffic
violation. It will not impact the more serious violations
that have as part of their punishment a license suspension.
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According to one of the sponsors the Western Center on Law and
Poverty:
While WCLP has long advocated for policies to reduce
poverty in California by increasing public benefit
assistance, expanding affordable housing opportunities
and ensuring that all Californians have access to
affordable health care, in recent years we have begun
to work on changing policies that reduces family income
due to the cost of debt and traps them in poverty.
As with all our work, this new direction is a
reflection of the issues that low income families bring
into local legal service programs for resolution. In
2012, we began to hear that CalWORKs families were not
able to succeed in their welfare to work activities
because they did not have a driver's license. The lack
of a license made it hard to get to work and school on
time. The lack of a license was a major barrier to
employment because many employers will not hire a
person without a license or one who has had their
license suspended. As we talked with legal service
partners across the state we learned that the issues
related to license suspensions were widespread and also
linked to an inability to pay court ordered debt due to
traffic tickets.
In 2015 a coalition of legal service organizations,
including WCLP, published a report, Not Just a Ferguson
Problem, How California Courts are Driving
Inequality.<1> The report documented that more than 4
million Californians had been cited by courts for
failure to appear in traffic court (FTA) or failure to
pay a traffic ticket (FTP). Under California's Vehicle
Code a person with an FTA or an FTP can have their
license suspended and the license is not restored until
all the fees, fines and assessments are paid off in
full. As the report documented, many people lost their
jobs when they got their license suspended and could
not get a new one. Thus the license suspension did not
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<1>
The report can be viewed at
http://wclp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Not-Just-a-Ferguson-Pr
oblem-How-Traffic-Courts-Drive-Inequality-in-California.pdf.
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have the desired impact of encouraging cooperation with
the courts but actually impeded cooperation.
The report also stated that most California courts
would not let a person contest an FTA or an FTP until
they paid all the money they owed in advance to the
court. Thus even if a person had good cause for not
appearing or not paying they could not tell the judge
unless they had the money to get their day in court.
The effect of these so-called "Pay to Play" rules
effectively created two systems of justice in
California: If one has resources they could see a judge
and have their day in court but if they did not have
the resources they did not get their day in court and
were saddled with hundreds or even thousands of dollars
in debt that they could do nothing about
The Not Just a Ferguson Problem report garnered
widespread media coverage which resulted in immediate
action by all three branches of state government. The
Governor proposed and passed an amnesty program that
reduced court ordered debt and allowed people to
immediately get their license restored.<2> The Chief
Justice responded by passing urgency regulations that
allowed some persons to see judges without paying all
their debts in advance.<3> The Legislature approved the
Governor's amnesty plan and unanimously passed Senator
Hertzberg's SB 405 to further limit the "pay to play"
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<2>
For more information on amnesty see the Judicial Council's
webpage at http://www.courts.ca.gov/ trafficamnesty.htm or the
advocate's website Backontheroadca.org.
<3>
The Judicial Council passed an expedited rule of court (Rule
4.105) in early June that can be found at
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/2015-07-08_2015-06-08_mtg_rule
-4_105.pdf . The Judicial Council later amended Rule 4.105 in
October. This rule can be viewed at
https://jcc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=4069617
&GUID=142F9D7F-438B-4DEC-B837-CC0791C4663E.
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practice.<4>
The response to the new amnesty program has been
strong. The Judicial Council has reported more than a
half a million hits to the webpage on amnesty and in
the first few months of the program nearly 40,000
persons were in the process of having their driver's
license renewed.<5> We believe the reason for the
success of the program is that it provides discounts on
debt that is seen by our clients as an insurmountable
burden and, perhaps most importantly, it immediately
restores the driving privilege to persons who agree to
make payments on the debt. Combined, amnesty
participation reduces the stress many of our clients
experience daily and provides an opportunity to escape
from their current situation.
Despite all these impressive accomplishments the fact
remains that thousands of Californians continue to be
caught up in traffic ticket debt every week. The fees,
fines and assessments are as high as ever. Persons
continue to have their licenses suspended simply
because they are poor. People are being arrested and
jailed for driving on a suspended license because they
have no other choice.
SB 881 proposes a fundamental shift in state policy
that will reduce the negative consequences from minor
traffic infractions. The bill proposes to eliminate
license suspensions as a punishment for failure to
appear for or pay minor traffic tickets. While state
law has many grounds for suspending a license, SB 881
ONLY eliminates the authority for failures to appear or
failures to pay under Vehicle Code section 13365. There
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<4>
The text of SB 405 can be viewed at
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_
id= 201520160SB405.
<5>
The Judicial Council provided an statutorily mandated update on
the first quarter of amnesty activity in March 2016. The data
can be viewed at
http://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/traffic-amnesty-provides-relie
f-to-thousands-of-californians
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are many reasons why the time has come to end this
practice.
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