BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1128
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Date of Hearing: August 16, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
SB 1128 (Alquist) - As Amended: June 22, 2006
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill creates the "Sex Offender Punishment, Control and
Containment Act of 2006," which makes dozens of changes to the
body of law relating to sex offenders. Specifically, this bill:
1)Increases penalties for numerous sex offenses, including child
pornography, continuous sexual abuse of a child, administering
a controlled substance to commit a sex offense.
2)Renovates the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Violent Crime
Information Network (hardware and software) and expands the
Megan's Law database on registered sex offenders by adding the
year of conviction and the year the offender was released from
incarceration.
3)Increases penalties for luring and enables police to use
on-line decoys to catch Internet predators.
4)Increases the period of parole for violent sexual offenses
from five to 10 years.
5)Prohibits sex offenders from loitering near schools, parks,
and places where children gather.
6)Creates a state and local scheme for assessing the risk
presented by convicted sex offenders: the State Authorized
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Risk Assessment Tool for Sex Offenders (SARATSO). Requires all
registered sex offenders to undergo assessment, and requires
training regarding SARATSO for law enforcement personnel and
others who may administer the SARATSO.
7)Makes major changes to the Sexually Violent Predator (SVP)
program, increasing commitments from two years to
indeterminate, tolling parole while a persons is an SVP, and
making completion of sex offender treatment programs a
condition of release.
8)Requires the state prison system to operate an in-custody sex
offender relapse treatment program, using SARATSO.
9)Makes a series of miscellaneous changes increasing fines and
changing distribution of fines levied on registered sex
offenders; funding Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE)
teams; and funding child abuse and abduction prevention
programs.
FISCAL EFFECT
This bill will result in major annual GF costs, potentially in
the range of $200 million. Major costs include:
1)Increasing penalties for various sex offenses . If the numerous
penalty-related provisions of this bill result in a 10%
increase in the population of sex offenders in state prison,
the annual GF cost would eventually exceed $25 million.
2)One-time state capital outlay costs , within a few years,
potentially in the low hundreds of millions of dollars for
construction of additional state mental hospital and prison
beds.
3)Expanding and enhancing the Megan's Law database and enhancing
DOJ's VCIN . Annual GF costs of about $3 million per year for
three years to update DOJ's VCIN and add information to the
Megan's Law website. Ongoing maintenance costs of about
$500,000.
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4)Increasing the period of parole for violent sexual offenses .
Costs in the tens of millions of dollars for more staff and
more revocations.
5)SARATSO . Creating a state and local scheme for assessing the
risk presented by convicted sex offenders, training state and
local authorities in the use of the assessment tool, assessing
sex offenders, increasing state and local parole and probation
staff to supervise more offenders for longer periods of time,
and increasing the scope of probation reports, will result in
state costs in the tens of million of dollars.
6)Major changes to the Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) program
will eventually result in increased annual costs in the tens
of millions of dollars from increasing the number of SVP
referrals, hearings, and commitments, and increasing the
length of commitments.
7)Increasing fines on persons convicted of registerable sex
crimes (from $200 to $300 on the first conviction, and from
$300 to $500 on a subsequent conviction), will likely result
in a relatively minor increase in revenue, probably less than
$1 million.
8)In-custody sex offender relapse treatment program would likely
cost tens of millions of dollars. To the extent these programs
are effective, and reduce recidivism, there could be
corresponding out-year savings.
9)SAFE teams . This bill appropriates $6 million to the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR's)
Correctional Standards Authority for grants to counties.
10)Office of Emergency Services (OES) child abuse and abduction
prevention programs . This bill appropriates $495,000 to OES.
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COMMENTS
1)Rationale. According to the author, this bill is "a
comprehensive, proactive approach to preventing the
victimization of Californians by sex offenders. Under current
law, California's tactical methods and infrastructure are
insufficient for law enforcement to appropriately assess,
convict and monitor sex offenders. This bill is the product of
months of discussion with, and input from, experts in the area
and incorporates a broad spectrum of approaches recognized by
law enforcement and avoids key flaws that have marred other
bills on this subject, such as residency requirements that
dump offenders into rural communities or provisions that
inadvertently tie the hands of police in performing Internet
sting operations."
2)Jessica's Law , which will be on the November ballot as
Proposition 83, provides for a series of penalty increases for
violent and habitual sex offenders and child molesters. It
prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 2,000
feet of any school or park, and requires lifetime Global
Positioning System (GPS) monitoring of felony registered sex
offenders. Prop 83 expands the definition of an SVP, and
changes the current two-year involuntary civil commitment for
an SVP to an indeterminate commitment.
The Legislative Analyst and Department of Finance estimate the
fiscal impact on state and local governments as unknown net
costs to the state, within a few years, potentially in the low
hundreds of millions of dollars annually due primarily to
increased state prison, parole supervision, and mental health
program costs. These costs will grow significantly in the long
term. Potential one-time state capital outlay costs, within a
few years, in the low hundreds of millions of dollars for
construction of additional state mental hospital and prison
beds. Unknown but potentially significant net operating costs
or savings to counties for jail, probation supervision,
district attorneys, and public defenders.
3)SB 1128 and Prop 83 . Though the initiative and SB 1128 are
similar in many areas (SVPs, many of the penalty changes), in
other areas, there are major differences: no GPS, no
residential restrictions in SB 1128, and no SAFE team funding
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or sex offender assessment (SARATSO) in Prop 83; and in many
cases, there are minor to moderate differences that will cause
confusion and/or chaptering problems (child pornography,
extended parole terms, luring, distribution of fine revenue.)
4)Related Legislation .
a) AB 231 (S. Runner) and SB 558 (G. Runner), virtually
identical to Prop 83, failed passage in the Assembly Public
Safety Committee and Senate Public Safety respectively.
b) AB 50 (Leno), which creates the Sex Offender Containment
and Management Act of 20006, was introduced as a parallel
measure to SB 1128. AB 50 has been amended to a different
topic.
c) AB 1015 (Chu), which creates a Sex Offender Management
Board to assess current management practices for adult sex
offenders and report is pending in the Senate
Appropriations Committee.
d) AB 1849 (Leslie) requires DOJ to include on the Megan's
Law website, the offender's year of conviction and year of
release from incarceration, similar to SB 1128. AB 1849 is
pending before Senate Appropriations.
e) SB 864 (Poochigian), which lengthens the period of civil
commitment for those found to be SVPs from two years to an
indeterminate term failed in the Assembly Public Safety
Committee.
f) SB 1178 (Speier) requires men convicted of registerable
sex offenses to be assessed for risk of re-offending;
similar to the requirements in SB 1128. SB 1178 is also
before this committee today.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081
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