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>


                                      -- END --


          






          ---------------------------
          <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