BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1330 Hearing Date: April 19, 2016
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|Author: |Galgiani |
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|Version: |March 28, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant:|ML |
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Subject: Missing Persons
HISTORY
Source: UDW/AFSCME Local 3930
Prior Legislation:SB 11 (Beall) - Chaptered 468, Stats. 2015
SB 29 (Beall) - Chaptered 469, Stats. 2015
Support: Unknown
Opposition:None known
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to expand the current definition of
"mentally impaired," which is one of the criteria of an
"at-risk" missing person, to also include "cognitively impaired
or developmentally disabled" individuals.
Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to establish and
maintain the Violent Crime Information Center, which combines
existing state, federal, and civilian databases into a single
comprehensive network to assist in the identification and
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apprehension of missing individuals, particularly children and
at-risk adults. (Penal Code §§14200-14201.)
Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to distribute a
missing children and at-risk adults bulletin on a quarterly
basis to local law enforcement agencies, district attorneys, and
public schools. (Penal Code §14204.)
Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to establish and
maintain an online missing person registry and also a separate
and confidential database of missing children and at-risk adults
for statistical and research purposes. (Penal Code §14205(d).)
Existing law authorizes the Department of Justice to operate a
statewide, toll-free telephone hotline 24 hours per day, seven
days per week to receive information regarding missing children
and at-risk adults and to relay this information to the
appropriate authorities. (Penal Code §14210.)
Existing law requires police and sheriff's departments to
immediately report and assess missing person cases using
checklists and guidelines to locate a missing person and that if
the missing person is under 21 years of age or at risk, to
broadcast a "Be On the Lookout" bulletin without delay, within
its jurisdiction. (Penal Code §14211(c), (d).)
Existing law defines a "missing person" to include any of the
following: 1) An at-risk adult; 2) A child who was taken,
detained, concealed, enticed away, or retained by a parent
illegally; 3) A child who is missing voluntarily or
involuntarily or under circumstances not conforming to his or
her ordinary habits or behavior and who may be need of
assistance. (Penal Code §14215(a).)
Existing law defines an "at-risk" individual to be any of the
following: a victim of a crime or foul play; in need of medical
attention; has no pattern of running away or disappearing; may
be a victim of parental abduction; or mentally impaired. (Penal
Code §14215(b).)
This bill clarifies that an at-risk individual who is mentally
impaired can include "a person who is cognitively impaired or
developmentally disabled."
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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
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
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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.
COMMENTS
1. Need for This Bill
According to the author:
The Silver Alert was signed into California law in 2012 to
help in the recovery of missing persons who are 65 years of
age and older. It was recently amended to include those who
have a developmental or mental disability or cognitive
impairment.
There are more than 250,000 people living with developmental
disabilities in California. Roughly 1 in 20 adults suffer from
a severe mental Illness, and many of these individuals are at
great risk of wandering at some point in their lives.
Recently, there have been efforts to educate and train those
in law enforcement who come into contact with these
individuals on how to interact and de-escalate a situation
with the least amount of force, most recently with the passing
of SB 29 and SB 11 in 2015.
Senate Bill 1330 will clarify that a "Be On The Lookout"
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bulletin should be issued when a missing person is cognitively
impaired or developmentally disabled. By updating the "Be On
The Lookout" bulletin provisions to conform to the Silver
Alert provisions, California will be taking another step
towards helping individuals with a developmental disability or
cognitive impairment live in safe communities.
2. Background
There are many protocols that apply to individuals who are
"at-risk" and missing. For instance, existing law establishes
that any "at-risk" and missing individuals' information will be
in the Attorney General's quarterly bulletin to local law
enforcement agencies, district attorneys, and public schools and
will be in the AG's confidential database for missing children
and at-risk adults created for statistical and research
purposes. Current law also dedicates a statewide, toll-free 24/7
telephone hotline to receive information to help locate missing
children and at-risk adults and to relay this information to the
appropriate authorities and also requires police and sheriff's
departments to immediately report and assess missing person
cases and that if the missing person is under 21 years of age or
at risk, to broadcast them a "Be On the Lookout" bulletin
without delay, within its jurisdiction. The bill clarifies that
a mentally impaired person, who is generally defined as
"at-risk" if missing, also includes a "cognitively impaired or
developmentally disabled" individual, which will help ensure
that current law also applies to help locate missing, at-risk
individuals with cognitive or developmental disabilities.
There can be an overlap in defining developmental and cognitive
disabilities. "Developmental" and "cognitive" are very broad
labels, and do not particularly indicate the level of skill or
ability that an individual may have." Developmental disability"
is a legal umbrella term that refers to disabilities present
before an individual reaches age 22. Congenital developmental
disabilities exist at birth, but developmental disabilities can
also be acquired post birth. Examples of developmental
disabilities are: Cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, hearing
loss, Down syndrome, mental retardation, spinal injury and brain
injury. Though not all of these disabilities necessarily result
in decreased intellectual functioning, often people use the term
to refer to disabilities that have a component affecting
cognitive function. "Cognitive disabilities" generally refers to
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any disability affecting mental processes, and examples include
mental retardation, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), dyslexia, aphasia, brain injury, language delay and
learning disabilities.<1>
In 2015, there were 83,144 reported cases of children who went
missing in California and of them 45,647 were female and 37,497
were male children.<2> It is unknown from the data how many of
these children were cognitively impaired or developmentally
disabled at the time that they went missing. In 2015, there were
40,823 reported cases of missing adults. From the total amount
of adults who went missing, 23,958 were male and 16,865 were
female adults. Of these cases, there were 1,943 "dependent
adults," which was defined as "any adult who has physical or
mental limitations that restrict his or her ability to carry out
normal activities."<3>
The number of active missing person cases in California averages
around 25,000 individuals and currently, there are over 3,000
reports of unidentified individuals (including homicide victims)
in the California Attorney General's database.<4> There is no
waiting period to report a missing person and the police and
sheriff's departments across California must accept any report,
whether it is made by telephone of missing persons and runaways,
immediately and give priority to handling such reports. Law
enforcement officers regularly highlight missing individuals on
the website either in the Featured Missing Children and Adult
Cases Section or through the Missing Person Bulletin. In order
to add photographs of a missing person on the website, family
members must submit the photo of the missing person to their
local law enforcement agency through a missing person's report.
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<1>
http://www.serviceandinclusion.org/index.php?page=developmental
<2>
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/missing/children/ch
ildren-2015-annual-reports.pdf?
<3>
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/missing/adults/adul
t-2015-annual-reports.pdf?
<4> https://oag.ca.gov/missing
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