BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    






                                                          AB 856  


Date of Hearing:  5/21/97

               ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                     Carole Migden, Chairwoman

          AB 856 (Hertzberg) - As Amended:  May 15, 1997
 
Policy Committee:  Public Safety                Vote:  8-0 Consent

Urgency:  No       State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable:    
    

  SUMMARY  

  This bill  creates a statewide "Witness Protection Program"  
administered by the Attorney General's (AG) office that:

a) Provides for the relocation or protection of a witness in a  
   criminal proceeding when there is evidence the witness may  
   suffer retaliatory
   violence or intimidation.

b) Authorizes the AG to enter into an agreement with the witness  
   in accordance with specified terms.

c) Requires the protected person to agree to make court  
   appointments and comply with all legal obligations.

d) Authorizes funds to be used to protect witnesses, provide  
   temporary or permanent relocation of witnesses, train and  
   supervise persons associated with the program, and pay related  
   program costs. 

  FISCAL EFFECT  

Appropriates $149,000 (GF) to the AG for the purposes of this act.  


This appropriation is .04% of the AG's annual $390 million budget.  
It is not clear what this appropriation is intended to cover or  
whether an appropriation of this size will be sufficient to  
operate a statewide program.                             

  BACKGROUND  

1) The L.A. D.A. runs a witness protection program that relocated  
   374 persons in 1993-94; most of the relocations were  
   gang-related. AB 853 (Hertzberg) appropriates $18 million to  

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   the Board of Corrections for gang-related programs.  Should  
   there be an interaction between these programs?

2) The state also has the Victim/Witness Fund ($17 million  
   proposed for 1997-98, funded from penalty assessments), which  
   funds victim/witness centers across the state that focus  
   primarily on victims.  Should there be an explicit relationship  
   between these two programs?









































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3) From 1978 to 1991, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ran the  
   California WPP. The DOJ discontinued program funding in 1992.  
   The California DOJ Law Enforcement Information Center (LEIC)  
   recorded 2,966 felony and misdemeanor arrests for threatening a  
   witness in the past five years. Department of Corrections data  
   show that in 1995-96, 38 persons were incarcerated for  
   intimidating a witness.









































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