BILL NUMBER: AB 565 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 14, 2000
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 3, 2000
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 10, 1999
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Florez, Briggs, and Havice
FEBRUARY 19, 1999
An act to add Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 13814)
to Title 6 of Part 4 of the Section 13814.5 to the
Penal Code, relating to youthful offenders.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 565, as amended, Florez. Youthful offenders: prevention
programs program plan .
Existing law establishes the California Gang, Crime, and Violence
Prevention Partnership Program, the Juvenile Crime Enforcement and
Accountability Challenge Grant Programs, and the Runaway Youth and
Families in Crises Projects, as specified.
This bill would establish a grant program to provide
funding for specified types of prevention and intervention programs
for youthful offenders. It also would create within the Office of
Criminal Justice Planning, the Office of Violence, Crime, and Gang
Prevention to administer the grant program, develop a statewide plan
for consolidating, augmenting, allocating, and coordinating violence,
crime, and gang programs and resources, and to report annually to
the Legislature, as specified provide that the Health
and Welfare Agency shall be responsible for developing a statewide
plan to be known as the California Violence Prevention and Public
Health Plan that would make recommendations regarding the
augmentation, allocation, implementation, and coordination of
violence, crime, and gang prevention programs and resources, to be
submitted to the Legislature within 2 years of the enactment of this
provision. The bill would also limit expenditures for the
development of the plan to $100,000 .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 13814) is added to
Title 6 of Part 4 of the Penal Code, to read:
CHAPTER 2.5. VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH ACT
13814. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
Violence Prevention and Public Health Act.
13814.2. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Violence and crime are public health issues and must be
treated through a public health approach that (1) identifies risk
factors that contribute to the occurrence of crime and violence, (2)
implements protective factors to prevent and reduce crime and
violence, and (3) implement community guidelines for preventing,
reducing and intervening in the commission of crime and violence.
(b) The United States Department of Justice has estimated that
crime costs four hundred ninety billion dollars ($490,000,000,000)
per year in the form of stolen or damaged property, loss of
productivity to society, loss of work time, costs to operate law
enforcement and the criminal justice system, and pain and suffering
of victims. While these costs can be quantified in monetary terms,
it is the intangible costs of crime, namely fear, isolation, anger,
and loss of trust, that can never truly be quantified or compensated
for.
(c) The health-related costs of crime and violence are enormous.
The average cost to treat a gunshot victim in California in 1993 was
approximately twenty-five thousand eight hundred eighty-three dollars
($25,883). In 1993 it cost seven hundred three million dollars
($703,000,000) in direct medical care to treat wounded gunshot
victims and fatalities. Over 80 percent of the medical care provided
to gunshot victims were uncompensated costs that were passed on to
the California public in 1995.
(d) There are approximately 55 state programs that can be
classified as violence, crime, or gang prevention programs and that
are operated by 11 state departments within six separate agencies.
Of these programs, approximately 17 target at-risk youth and young
adults and are specifically designed to prevent or reduce violence,
crime, or gang activity, while only a few programs specifically
follow the public health model approach.
(e) Consolidating many of the state's violence, crime, and gang
prevention programs into one office will result in greater
efficiency, cost effectiveness, and the sharing of resources,
information, and experience. The Little Hoover Commission, and the
Task Force to Review Juvenile Crime and the Juvenile Justice Response
have both recommended that youth violence and crime prevention
programs be consolidated into a single state agency to ensure greater
effectiveness.
(f) There is a practical and strong need to improve many of the
state's current prevention programs by requiring that they do all of
the following:
(1) Target at-risk and young adults and at-risk families.
(2) Be community based and collaborative.
(3) Follow the public health model approach for preventing or
reducing violence, crime, and gang activity.
(4) Identify measurable goals and objectives, including the
improvement of attitudes and behaviors toward violence, crime, and
gangs.
(5) Be evaluated to ensure that goals and objectives are being met
and that attitudes and behaviors are being improved.
(g) California has no comprehensive plan or strategy for
preventing violence, crime, and gang activity through preventive,
public health approaches.
(h) Despite recent declines in the arrest and conviction rates of
violent, criminal, and gang offenders, the number of victims,
arrests, and convictions remain unacceptably high.
(i) California expends a significant amount of its resources for
law enforcement, incarceration, courts, prosecution, and public
defense, approximately fifteen billion five hundred million dollars
($15,500,000,000) in 1994-95, while spending under two hundred fifty
million dollars ($250,000,000) for prevention programs targeting
at-risk youth and young adults.
(j) The criminal justice approach to violence, crime, and gang
activity cannot adequately bring violence, crime, and gang activity
to an acceptable level, and must be balanced with other strategies,
such as the prevention and public health approach, that can serve,
prevent, and reduce violence, crime, and gang activity.
(k) There is a strong and practical need to develop new prevention
policies to require the following:
(1) At-risk youth and young adults and at-risk families are
targeted to receive services, support, or activities.
(2) Prevention efforts be community based and collaborative.
(3) Prevention efforts follow the public health model approach for
preventing or reducing violence, crime, and gang activity.
(4) Prevention efforts identify measurable goals and objectives,
including the improvement of attitudes and behaviors toward violence,
crime, and gangs.
(5) Prevention efforts are evaluated to ensure that goals and
objectives are being met and that attitudes and behaviors are being
improved.
(l) Local communities need assistance and resources for developing
and implementing effective strategies and programs to prevent,
intervene, and reduce violence, crime, and gang activity.
(m) It is the intent of the Violence Prevention and Public Health
Act that the Office of Violence, Crime, and Gang Prevention be
created to prevent and reduce violence, crime, and gang activity
through preventive and public health strategies, that existing
prevention programs be consolidated into and coordinated by the
office for purposes of efficiency and cost effectiveness, that
existing prevention programs be improved to ensure effectiveness and
accountability, that a statewide plan be developed to ensure that
prevention strategies are carried out throughout the state in a
methodical and effective manner, and that new policy be established
to fill in gaps in services that can prevent and reduce at-risk youth
and young adults and at-risk families from beginning or continuing
the cycle of violence, crime, or gangs. However, in consolidating
existing prevention programs into the office, it is not the
Legislature's intent that resources for those programs be eliminated,
reduced, or affected in any way.
13814.3. (a) The Office of Violence, Crime, and Gang Prevention
is hereby created within the Office of the Criminal Justice Planning.
(b) The duties and responsibilities of the office shall include,
but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Consolidating, coordinating, and administering existing
state-operated programs that are undertaken primarily for purposes of
preventing at-risk youth and young adults and at-risk families from
entering or continuing the cycle of crime, violence, and gangs.
These programs do not include those programs operated by local
government, such as probation programs.
(2) Providing technical assistance and support to local
communities, cities, and counties in designing and implementing
effective programs and strategies for preventing and reducing the
number of at-risk youth and young adults and at-risk families from
engaging in crime, violence, and gangs.
(3) Reviewing state-operated violence, crime, and gang prevention
programs to determine if they are community based and require
collaboration, if they follow the public health model approach in
preventing or reducing violence, crime, and gang activity, if they
identify specific goals and objectives, if they require measurable
outcomes such as changes in attitudes and behaviors, and if each
program requires effective evaluation of the program, and making
recommendations and changes where appropriate to ensure these
programs contain these components.
(4) Administering a grant program as described in Section 13814.9
that makes resources available to community-based efforts that take a
public health approach to preventing and reducing crime, violence,
and gangs.
(5) Identifying and disseminating information regarding the
availability of state, federal, public, and private funding which can
be used for violence, crime, or gang prevention or intervention
activities and services.
(6) Applying for funding from state, federal, public, and private
sources that can be awarded to organizations through the grant
program.
(7) Analyzing state public policy to assess California's responses
to crime, violence, and gangs, and issuing recommendations to ensure
the state follows the public health model approach in undertaking
significant and effective prevention and intervention efforts to
prevent and reduce violence, crime, and gangs.
(8) Evaluating existing state-operated prevention and intervention
programs to determine their effectiveness in preventing or reducing
violence, crime, and gangs, as well as in improving attitudes toward
violence, crime, and gangs.
(9) Developing a statewide plan for consolidating, augmenting,
allocating, and coordinating violence, crime, and gang prevention
programs and resources. The plan shall be developed with the input
and approval of the advisory board described in Section 13814.8 and
shall be known as the California Violence Prevention and Public
Health Plan.
(10) Promoting and advocating at all levels of government for the
provision, expansion, and funding of effective community-based
prevention and public health programs as part of a balanced strategy
for preventing and reducing violence, crime, and gangs.
(11) Reporting annually to the Legislature, beginning at the close
of the second year of operation, no less than the following
information:
(A) Activities taken by the office and their outcomes.
(B) Activities taken to implement the California Violence
Prevention and Public Health Plan, and their outcomes.
(C) The number of at-risk youth and young adults and at-risk
families, as defined in this chapter, participating in violence,
crime, and gang prevention programs operated by the state and by the
office, and the outcomes of their participation.
(D) The number of youth arrested for violence, crime, or gang
activity, the disposition of their arrest, and the number of youth
made wards of the courts.
(E) The number of adults arrested for violence, crime or gang
activity, the disposition of their arrest, and the number of adults
sentenced to jail, state or federal prison.
(12) The office shall not engage, promote, or otherwise support
containment or suppression-type activities which include, but are not
limited to, types of activities that require the identification,
monitoring, or disclosure of gang members, juvenile, or adult
offenders to law enforcement agencies.
13814.4. (a) A grant program is hereby established to carry out
the goals specified in subdivision (b), and shall be administered by
the Office of Crime, Violence, and Gang Prevention in accordance with
the provisions of this chapter.
(b) Programs administered under the grant program required by this
section shall be designed at a minimum to do the following:
(1) Improve attitudes and behaviors toward violence, crime, or
gangs.
(2) Identify specific goals and objectives.
(3) Take a public health model approach to preventing and reducing
crime by identifying risk factors, implementing protective factors,
and undertaking community campaign efforts.
(4) Target at-risk youth and young adults, including both males
and females and those in or exiting the juvenile justice system, and
at-risk families.
(5) Require the involvement of community-based organizations.
(6) Require collaboration with other organizations and agencies
where appropriate.
(7) Require that each program be objectively evaluated to
determine whether attitudes and behaviors toward violence, crime, or
gangs are being improved and whether program goals and objectives are
being met.
(c) This grant program shall provide funding to, but not be
limited to, funding the following types of prevention and
intervention programs:
(1) Community-based youth violence, crime, or gang prevention or
early intervention programs.
(2) School-based youth violence, crime, or gang prevention
programs.
(3) Early childhood intervention programs designed to prevent
violence, crime, or gangs, and which serve young children and
families at risk.
(4) Family violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault
prevention programs.
(5) Programs that provide shelter and support services to at risk
youth and their families.
(6) Prevention programs that include alcohol and substance abuse
prevention efforts.
(7) Intervention programs that provide support services to youth
and young adults in or exiting the juvenile justice system, and their
families.
(8) Prevention programs that include health care services.
SECTION 1. Section 13814.5 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
13814.5. (a) The Health and Welfare Agency shall be
responsible for developing a statewide plan known as the California
Violence Prevention and Public Health Plan which shall make
recommendations regarding the augmentation, allocation,
implementation, and coordination of violence, crime, and gang
prevention programs and resources. The report shall be prepared in
consultation with the Department of Justice, the State Department of
Social Services, the Board of Corrections, the Office of Drug and
Alcohol Programs, the Office of Criminal Justice Planning, nonprofit
community-based organizations, chief probation officers, and the
State Department of Education.
(b) The goal of the California Violence Prevention and
Public Health Plan is to reduce youth violence, crime and gang
activity to a reasonable level within 10 years, and to reduce it
further or to maintain it at a reasonable level thereafter. The plan
shall contain measurable objectives for reaching this goal, which
shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) Identification of effective and promising prevention and
public health strategies that can reduce violence, crime and gang
activity.
(2) Implementation of effective and promising prevention and
public health strategies in communities experiencing significant
levels of violence, crime or gang activity.
(3) The identification and procurement of resources which can
assist in reaching the plan's goal.
(4) Recommendations for improving the effective delivery of
current and new prevention services, including the consolidation and
coordination of such services.
(5) An evaluation of how local and state government responds to
youth violence, crime and gang activity and recommendations for
improving these responses.
(6) Evaluation efforts to determine whether prevention and public
health strategies are reducing youth violence, crime and gang
activity.
(b)
(c) The statewide California Violence Prevention and Public
Health Plan shall contain the following:
(1) Current information regarding the commission of crime and
violence in California, gangs and gang activity, research on the
effectiveness and cost effectiveness of violence, crime, and gang
prevention programs and strategies, and any other pertinent
information.
(2) A summary of violence, crime, and gang prevention programs
operated by the state, and the level of funding allocated annually to
such programs.
(3) Identification of "gaps" in prevention and early intervention
policies and services at the state and local levels.
(4) Identification of risk factors that place at-risk youth and
young adults and at-risk families at risk for entering or continuing
the cycle of violence, crime, or gangs.
(5) Identification of protective factors that can prevent and
reduce violence, crime, or gangs.
(6) Identification of community guidelines for preventing and
reducing violence, crime, and gangs.
(7) Short-term and long-term strategies and plans for implementing
protective factors and community guidelines which can prevent and
reduce violence, crime, and gang activity in each county of
California that experiences significant violence, crime, or gang
activity.
(8) A plan for securing resources and working with local
communities to implement these strategies and plan throughout the
state.
(9) An identification of state-operated prevention and
intervention programs which shall be consolidated into the office and
an identification of those programs which shall be coordinated with
by the office.
(c)
(d) In developing the plan, the office and advisory
board shall take in consideration existing prevention and
intervention efforts being carried out, such as those undertaken by
the California Children and Families First Commission, and attempt to
coordinate and collaborate with and complement those efforts, where
appropriate. The office and advisory board shall
also consider developing short-term and long-term strategies and
implementing them on a pilot basis in certain counties and regions of
the state.
(d)
(e) The plan shall be submitted to the Legislature within
two years of the enactment of this chapter.
13814.6. (a) For purposes of this chapter at-risk youth and young
adults are defined to include, but not be limited to, persons
between the ages of five and 25 years who fall into no less than two
of the following categories:
(1) Live in a high crime or high violence neighborhood as
identified by state or federal agencies.
(2) Live in a low-income neighborhood as identified by the United
States Census Bureau.
(3) Are excessively absent from school or performing poorly in
schools.
(4) Come from socially dysfunctional families as diagnosed by a
social service or health professional.
(5) Have been emotionally, physically, or sexually abused.
(6) Have entered the juvenile justice system.
(7) Are identified by the juvenile justice system as being at
risk.
(8) Are current or former gang members.
(9) Have one or more family members who are current or former gang
members.
(10) Are wards of the court, as defined in Section 601 or 602 of
the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(11) Have recently been released from the California Youth
Authority, juvenile hall, boot camp, or other state or local
governmental youth detention facility.
(b) At-risk families are defined to include, but not limited to,
families that meet one of the following two circumstances:
(1) Are comprised of at least one at-risk youth or young adult as
defined in this section.
(2) Have been identified as at risk of engaging in negligent,
abusive, or criminal behavior.
13814.7. (a) The following state programs and the personnel that
operate them shall be transferred into the Office of Violence, Crime,
and Gang Prevention within one to two years of enactment of this
chapter in accordance with a plan adopted by the Legislature:
(1) From the office of the Attorney General, the California Gang,
Crime, and Violence Prevention Partnership Program.
(2) From the Board of Corrections, the At-Risk Youth Early
Intervention Program, the Juvenile Crime Enforcement and
Accountability Challenge Grant Program, and the Repeat Offender
Prevention Grant Program.
(3) From the California Department of Education, the Conflict
Resolution and Youth Mediation Program, the Gang Risk Intervention
Program Grant, the High Risk Youth Education and Public Safety
Program, and the Targeted Truancy and Public Safety Program.
(4) From the Department of Social Services, the Community
Alternatives to Violence Program, and the Juvenile Crime Prevention
Initiative Program.
(b) In consolidating the programs specified in subdivision (a),
into the Office of Violence, Crime and Gang Prevention, it is the
intent of the Legislature that these programs continue to receive
funding subject to applicable legislation, if they are found to be
promising or effective in preventing or reducting violence, crime or
gang activity, and if they are found to be promising or effective in
improving attitudes and behaviors of at-risk youth, young adults or
families toward violence, crime and gangs.
(c) The office shall not be precluded from entering into a
memorandum of understanding with state departments operating any of
the programs identified in this section for purposes of allowing the
state departments to continue operating any of those programs if the
program is schedule to terminate within one year of the date the
program is to be transferred to the office.
(d) The office and the advisory board shall develop the plan for
transferring these programs into the office in a timely and orderly
fashion.
13814.8. (a) An advisory board shall be formed to meet at least
four times a year and to carry out the following duties:
(1) Provide direction and make recommendations regarding the
activities, priorities, and policies of the office.
(2) Provide input and recommendations for the statewide prevention
plan to be developed by the office pursuant to paragraph (9) of
subdivision (b) of Section 13814.3.
(3) Take a visible and active role to inform the public of the
need for expanding and funding public health and prevention
strategies which can effectively prevent and reduce violence, gangs,
and crime.
(4) Develop relationships with the public and private sector for
purposes of applying for and securing resources for the grant
program.
(5) Assist the office in promoting prevention programs and
strategies in local communities.
(6) Assist the office in developing state prevention and
intervention policy that "fill in the gap" in existing policy
relating to at-risk youth, young adults, and wards under the
jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system.
(b) The advisory board shall be comprised of the following
members:
(1) The Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
(2) The Director of the Department of Health Services.
(3) The Director of the Department of the California Youth
Authority.
(4) A chief probation officer to be appointed by the Governor.
(5) A local law enforcement officer to be appointed by the
Governor.
(6) A health professional with expertise in violence, crime, or
gang prevention issues to be appointed by the Director of the Office
of Criminal Justice Planning.
(7) A social or health practitioner having expertise in violence,
crime, or gang prevention matters to be appointed by the Director of
the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
(8) A criminologist or juvenile justice expert having specialized
knowledge with violence, crime or gang prevention matters to be
appointed by the Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
(9) A representative of a school district or county office of
education that has implemented a collaborative, school-based
violence, crime or gang prevention program, to be appointed by the
Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
(10) Representatives of no less than three community-based
organizations that follow the public health model approach in
preventing or reducing youth violence, crime, or gang activity to be
appointed by the Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
(11) Two youth members under the age of 25 years who have
experience in programs, services, or activities relating to
preventing violence, crime, or gangs.
(12) Two members who shall be former youth offenders or former
gang members who are presently working in a community-based setting
to prevent youth from engaging or continuing the cycle of violence,
crime, or gangs, to be appointed by the Director of the Office of
Criminal Justice Planning.
(13) A
representative of the community-based organization that provides
alcohol abuse education, prevention, or treatment services to be
appointed by the Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
(14) A representative of a community-based organization that
provides substance abuse education, prevention, or treatment services
to be appointed by the Director of the Office of Criminal Justice
Planning.
13814.9. (a) The Youth Violence, Crime, and Gang Prevention Fund
is hereby created in the State Treasury. Funds received from
private, state, or federal sources for violence, crime, or gang
prevention purposes may be deposited into the fund. Upon
appropriation for those purposes by the Legislature, these funds
shall be used by the Office of Youth Violence, Crime, and Gang
Prevention to carry out the purposes of this chapter. Funds received
by the office shall also be used to fund the Runaway Youth and
Families in Crisis Project as enacted pursuant to Chapter 1065 of the
Statutes of 1998 for the purpose of providing services in the
Central Valley, northern California and in southern California, and
to the California Gang, Crime and Violence Prevention Partnership
Program, as enacted pursuant to Chapter 885 of the Statutes of 1997,
for the purpose of providing services to the 30 grantees who were
awarded funds in 1998 under that chapter and who have satisfactorily
met their contract obligations.
(b) Funding for the Office of Youth Violence, Crime, and Gang
Prevention shall come from the General Fund in an amount equal to
____ percent of the operating budget of the Department of the Youth
Authority, and shall increase annually by between 5 percent and 10
percent until the operating budget of the office equals the operating
budget of the Department of the Youth Authority.
(f) No more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) may be
expended for the development of this plan.
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