BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1334
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1334 (Swanson)
As Introduced February 23, 2007
Majority vote
PUBLIC SAFETY 5-2 APPROPRIATIONS
(vote not
available)
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|Ayes:|Solorio, De La Torre, | | |
| |Leno, Ma, Portantino | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Aghazarian, Anderson | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Enacts the Inmate and Community Public Health and
Safety Act, which requires the Secretary of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to allow any
non-profit or health care agency to distribute sexual barrier
protection devices. Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows for the distribution of sexual barrier protection
devices despite Penal Code Section 286(e).
2)Allows distribution of sexual barrier protection devices
despite Penal Code Section 288a(e).
3)Allows the Secretary of the CDCR to distribute sexual barrier
protection devices such as condoms and dental dams to inmates.
4)Makes agencies that distribute condoms and dental dams to
inmates subject to all relevant laws and regulations regarding
visitors to correctional facilities.
5)Provides that distribution of condoms and dental dams shall
not be considered a crime nor shall it be deemed to encourage
sexual acts between inmates.
6)States that possession of condoms and dental dams will not be
used as evidence of illegal activity for purposes of
administrative sanctions.
EXISTING LAW :
AB 1334
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1)Provides that any person who participates in an act of sodomy
with any person of any age while confined in any state prison
or local detention facility shall be punished by imprisonment
in the state prison or in a county jail for not more than one
year.
2)Provides that persons participating in an act of oral
copulation while confined in any state prison or local
detention facility shall be punished by imprisonment in the
state prison or in a county jail for a period of not more than
one year.
3)Declares that the spread of HIV/AIDS within prison and jail
populations presents a grave danger to inmates within those
populations, law enforcement personnel, and other persons in
contact with a prisoner infected with the AIDS virus, both
during and after the prisoner's confinement.
4)Prohibits all sex acts, illegal and consensual, between
inmates.
5)Requires CDCR, contingent on the availability of funding, to
provide HIV/AIDS health and prevention information to inmates.
6)Provides that an inmate may request HIV testing of another
inmate if he or she reasonably believes that he or she has
come into contact with the other inmate's bodily fluids; the
chief medical officer will make the determination whether to
require the testing.
7)Authorizes the chief medical officer to order a test of an
inmate if he/she concludes there are clinical symptoms of
HIV/AIDS as recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
8)Requires probation and parole officers be notified when an
inmate being released from incarceration is infected with
AIDS, and permits these officers to notify certain persons who
will come into contact with the parolee or probationer if
authorized by law.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
AB 1334
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Committee:
1)Unknown one-time General Fund (GF) costs, likely in excess of
$150,000, for sanitary condom disposal. Based on 33 prisons,
and more than 700 inmate housing units, if each housing unit
had a special secure refuse container, presumably one that
locks, with a weekly change of liner, the one-time equipment
cost would exceed $150,000.
2)Ongoing costs in the range of $100,000 for refuse collection
and container maintenance and repair.
3)Unknown ongoing GF savings, likely more than offsetting the
costs of this bill, to the extent providing condoms prevents
HIV transmission, thereby reducing CDCR medical costs and
Medi-Cal costs once inmates are released from parole.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "We are facing a community
public health problem of epidemic proportions and we must do
everything that is plausible to solve it. The alarming rate of
HIV in the African-American community among women is
unacceptable and demands more than lip service. We need
practical solutions and less rhetoric."
Please see the policy committee analysis for full discussion of
this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Nicole J. Hanson / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
FN: 0001019