BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1221 Hearing Date: April 12, 2016
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|Author: |Hertzberg |
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|Version: |February 18, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|ML |
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Subject: Firefighters: Interaction with Mentally Disabled
Persons
HISTORY
Source: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Prior Legislation:AB 1227 (Cooper) - introduced in 2015, held in
Senate Appropriations (2016)
SB 11 (Beall) - Chapter 468, Stats. 2015
SB 29 (Beall) - Chapter 2015, Stats. 2015
Support: Association of Regional Center Agencies; California
Fire Chiefs Association; California Public Defenders
Association; California State Council on Development
Disabilities; California State Sheriffs' Association;
California Public Defenders Association; Disability
Rights California; Fire Districts Association of
California; League of California Cities
Opposition:Unknown
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to make the POST training course
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relating to interactions with the mentally disabled available to
firefighters and fire departments.
Existing law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards
and Training (POST) "to establish and keep updated a continuing
education classroom training course relating to law enforcement
interaction with the mentally disabled" and to make the course
available to law enforcement agencies in California. (Penal Code
§13515.25.)
This bill authorizes POST to make available this educational
training to firefighters and fire departments.
This bill makes additional purely technical amendments to this
section.
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:
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
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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
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy.
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COMMENTS
1.Need for This Bill
According to the author:
Researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy
Research found that nearly one in five adults in the
state - about 4.9 million people - said they needed
help for a mental or emotional health problem.
Frequently, police officers respond to mental health
related calls and incidents, many of which can be time
consuming. The Federal Bureau of Justice Affairs
reported that "behaviors resulting in mental illness
are a factor in 3 to 7 percent of all law enforcement
calls for service."
Existing law requires POST to establish a continuing
education classroom training course related to law
enforcement interaction with mentally disabled persons
and to make the course available to law enforcement
agencies in California. Firefighters, being first
responders, come into contact with mentally disabled
persons as frequently as law enforcement officers.
Fire and Emergency Medical Services are trained on the
medical side, but mental health emergencies can mimic
medical ones and it is important for all personnel
responding to these emergencies to be aware of the
implications of that.
2. Effect of Legislation; Background
This legislation would extend POST's current training
program to prepare law enforcement officers for
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interactions with both developmentally and mentally
disabled persons to firefighters. The POST training for law
enforcement website highlights some examples of such
disabilities and its common occurrences that the training
would target: one out of 17 adults suffer from
schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder or major depression, 46%
of the homeless have a mental illness and/or substance
abuse disorder, and one out of 68 children is diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorder.<1>
Currently, law enforcement training provides a minimum of
664 training hours in its Regular Basic Course, which is
divided into 42 individual law enforcement topics called
Learning Domains (LD). LD37 focuses on People with
Disabilities and requires a minimum of 15 hours of
instruction, learning activities, a written exam and
resolving a "high stakes" scenario involving a person with
a mental or developmental disability. The training is
designed to:
Introduce the laws that protect people with
disabilities, enhance the recognition of behaviors
that are indicative of disability or mental illness,
provide de-escalation
skills, teach situation-appropriate responses and
referrals to the individual and community, and reduce
the stigma associated with mental illness and
disabilities.<2>
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<1> https://www.post.ca.gov/did-you-know-mental-health.aspx
<2>
https://www.post.ca.gov/mental-health-training-in-the-regular-bas
ic-course.aspx