BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Mark Leno, Chair A
2009-2010 Regular Session B
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AB 337 (Torres)
As Amended June 1, 2009
Hearing date: July 7, 2009
Welfare and Institutions Code
AA:mc
JUVENILE JUSTICE:
SEALING AND DESTRUCTION OF COURT RECORDS
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: None
Support: California Teachers Association; AFSCME, AFL-CIO; Legal
Services for
Prisoners with Children; Friends Committee on Legislation;
California School Boards of Education
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: Ayes 52 - Noes 25
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD JUVENILE COURTS AND PROBATION DEPARTMENTS BE REQUIRED TO
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ENSURE THAT INFORMATION ABOUT THE SEALING AND DESTRUCTION OF
JUVENILE RECORDS IS PROVIDED TO PERSONS WITH JUVENILE RECORDS ON OR
AFTER JANUARY 1, 2011, AS SPECIFIED?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to require juvenile courts and
probation departments to ensure that information about the
sealing and destruction of juvenile records is provided to
persons with juvenile records on or after January 1, 2011, as
specified.
Current law prohibits the sealing or destruction of juvenile
records "in any case in which the person has been found by the
juvenile court to have committed an offense listed in
subdivision (b) of Section 707 when he or she had attained 14
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years of age or older." <1> (Welfare and Institutions Code
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<1> WIC Section 707 (b) offenses are the following: (1)
murder; (2) arson, as specified; (3) robbery; (4) rape with
force or violence or threat of great bodily harm; (5) sodomy by
force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm;
(6) lewd or lascivious act with a child under 14, as specified;
(7) oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, or
threat of great bodily harm; (8) forcible sexual penetration, as
specified; (9) kidnapping for ransom; (10) kidnapping for
purpose of robbery; (11) kidnapping with bodily harm; (12)
attempted murder; (13) assault with a firearm or destructive
device; (14) assault by any means of force likely to produce
great bodily injury; (15) discharge of a firearm into an
inhabited or occupied building; (16) specified crimes against
older or physically disabled persons, as specified; (17)
specified firearm offenses; (18) any felony offense in which the
minor personally used a weapon, as specified; (19) specified
felonies involving victim intimidation; (20) manufacturing,
compounding, or selling one-half ounce or more of any salt or
solution of a controlled substance, as specified; (21) any
violent felony, as specified; (22) escape, by the use of force
or violence, from any county juvenile hall, home, ranch, camp,
or forestry camp, as specified, where great bodily injury is
intentionally inflicted upon an employee of the juvenile
facility during the commission of the escape; (23) torture, as
specified; (24) aggravated mayhem, as specified; (25)
carjacking, as specified, while armed with a dangerous or deadly
weapon; (26) kidnapping, as specified; (27) kidnapping relating
to carjacking, as specified; (28) specified offenses involving
firearms in vehicles; (29) specified crimes involving explosive
devices; and (30) voluntary manslaughter, as specified.
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("WIC") 781(a); (d)<2>.)
Current law otherwise generally authorizes a petition to seal
juvenile delinquency court records five years or more after the
persons was cited, court jurisdiction terminated, once the
person has reached 18 years of age, as specified. (WIC
781(a).)
Current law generally requires the juvenile court to notify the
district attorney, the county probation officer, and enumerated
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<2> Section 781(d) specifically provides: "Unless for good
cause the court determines that the juvenile court record shall
be retained, the court shall order the destruction of a person's
juvenile court records that are sealed pursuant to this section
as follows: five years after the record was ordered sealed, if
the person who is the subject of the record was alleged or
adjudged to be a person described by Section 601; or when the
person who is the subject of the record reaches the age of 38 if
the person was alleged or adjudged to be a person described by
Section 602,
except that if the subject of the record was found to be a
person described in Section 602 because of the commission of an
offense listed in subdivision (b), of Section 707, when he or
she was 14 years of age or older, the record shall not be
destroyed. Any other agency in possession of sealed records may
destroy its records five years after the record was ordered
sealed." See also WIC 826.
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others having relevant evidence may testify at the hearing on
the petition, as specified. (Id.)
Current law generally provides that if, after hearing, the court
finds that the person "has not been convicted of a felony or of
any misdemeanor involving moral turpitude and that
rehabilitation has been attained to the satisfaction of the
court," the court shall order all records, papers, and exhibits
in the person's case in the custody of the juvenile court
sealed, as specified. (Id.)
Current law provides that "(o)nce the court has ordered the
person's records sealed, the proceedings in the case shall be
deemed never to have occurred, and the person may properly reply
accordingly to any inquiry about the events, the records of
which are ordered sealed." (Id.)
Current law sets forth additional provision concerning the
treatment of juvenile records, including the destruction of
sealed juvenile records. ( Id.)
This bill would require that, on and after January 1, 2011, each
court and probation department "ensure that information
regarding the eligibility for and the procedures to request the
sealing and destruction of records pursuant to this section
shall be provided to each person who is either of the following:
(A) A person for whom a petition has been filed, on or
after January 1, 2011, to adjudge the person a ward of the
juvenile court.
(B) A person who is brought before a probation officer
pursuant to Section 626.<3>
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<3> This section pertains to minors who have been taken into
temporary custody by a peace officer.
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This bill would require the Judicial Council, on or before
January 1, 2011, to "develop informational materials for
purposes (enumerated above), and . . . a form to petition the
court for the sealing and destruction of records pursuant to
this section."
This bill would require that these informational materials and
the form shall be provided to the persons enumerated directly
above "when jurisdiction is terminated or when the case is
dismissed."
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION IMPLICATIONS
California continues to face a severe prison overcrowding
crisis. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
currently has about 170,000 inmates under its jurisdiction. Due
to a lack of traditional housing space available, the department
houses roughly 15,000 inmates in gyms and dayrooms.
California's prison population has increased by 125 percent (an
average of 4 percent annually) over the past 20 years, growing
from 76,000 inmates to 171,000 inmates, far outpacing the
state's population growth rate for the age cohort with the
highest risk of incarceration.<4>
In December of 2006 plaintiffs in two federal lawsuits against
CDCR sought a court-ordered limit on the prison population
pursuant to the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act. On
February 9, 2009, the three-judge federal court panel issued a
tentative ruling that included the following conclusions with
respect to overcrowding:
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<4> "Between 1987 and 2007, California's population of ages 15
through 44-the age cohort with the highest risk for
incarceration-grew by an average of less than 1 percent
annually, which is a pace much slower than the growth in prison
admissions." (2009-2010 Budget Analysis Series, Judicial and
Criminal Justice, Legislative Analyst's Office (January 30,
2009).)
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No party contests that California's prisons are
overcrowded, however measured, and whether considered
in comparison to prisons in other states or jails
within this state. There are simply too many prisoners
for the existing capacity. The Governor, the
principal defendant, declared a state of emergency in
2006 because of the "severe overcrowding" in
California's prisons, which has caused "substantial
risk to the health and safety of the men and women who
work inside these prisons and the inmates housed in
them." . . . A state appellate court upheld the
Governor's proclamation, holding that the evidence
supported the existence of conditions of "extreme
peril to the safety of persons and property."
(citation omitted The Governor's declaration of the
state of emergency remains in effect to this day.
. . . the evidence is compelling that there is no
relief other than a prisoner release order that will
remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions.
. . .
Although the evidence may be less than perfectly
clear, it appears to the Court that in order to
alleviate the constitutional violations California's
inmate population must be reduced to at most 120% to
145% of design capacity, with some institutions or
clinical programs at or below 100%. We caution the
parties, however, that these are not firm figures and
that the Court reserves the right - until its final
ruling - to determine that a higher or lower figure is
appropriate in general or in particular types of
facilities.
. . .
Under the PLRA, any prisoner release order that we
issue will be narrowly drawn, extend no further than
necessary to correct the violation of constitutional
rights, and be the least intrusive means necessary to
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correct the violation of those rights. For this
reason, it is our present intention to adopt an order
requiring the State to develop a plan to reduce the
prison population to 120% or 145% of the prison's
design capacity (or somewhere in between) within a
period of two or three years.<5>
The final outcome of the panel's tentative decision, as well as
any appeal that may be in response to the panel's final
decision, is unknown at the time of this writing.
This bill does not appear to aggravate the prison overcrowding
crisis outlined above.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill
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<5> Three Judge Court Tentative Ruling, Coleman v.
Schwarzenegger, Plata v. Schwarzenegger, in the United States
District Courts For The Eastern District of California And The
Northern District Of California United States District Court
Composed Of Three Judges Pursuant To Section 2284, Title 28
United States Code (Feb. 9, 2009).
The author states:
Records of the most serious offenses in juvenile court
are open to the public. Offenses not considered
serious are eligible to be sealed. Currently
commercial brokers and others, including credit
companies, potential employers, and prospective
landlords, are able to obtain information and hold it
against people who may have committed minor offenses
in their youth. Worse, much of the information may be
incomplete or even wrong, failing to reflect that a
case has been dismissed, or the fact that a youth
successfully completed probation and had his or her
petition dismissed. Thus, collateral consequences of
juvenile behavior continue into adulthood: employers
may deny jobs or promotions, landlords may refuse to
rent, and people otherwise able and willing to be
productive citizens may be shut out of gainful
activities.
Today there are many law abiding adults who are being
negatively affected as a result of minor offenses they
committed in their youth. Although minor offenses can
legally be sealed under current law, many youth and
young people do not understand their rights, and do
not understand the process they must undertake to file
a petition in court and ask for relief. This is
especially true for youth who have no guiding adult,
mentor or caretaker in their lives to assist them,
many of whom emancipated out of the foster care
system.
2. What This Bill Would Do
As explained above, this bill would require that, on and after
January 1, 2011, persons who have been detained or subjected to
a delinquency petition in the juvenile court would be entitled
to information about how to have their juvenile records sealed.
The bill would require Judicial Council to develop a form and
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informational materials to be provided to persons who have been
the subject of a delinquency petition, or temporarily detained
by a peace officer, once the court's jurisdiction is terminated
or a petition is dismissed.
Under current law juvenile court records generally must be
destroyed when the person of record reaches the age of 38 unless
good cause is shown for maintaining those records. The person
of record may also petition to destroy records retained by other
agencies. The request shall be granted unless good cause is
shown for retention of the records. (WIC 826.) When records
are destroyed under this section, the proceedings "shall be
deemed never to have occurred, and the person may reply
accordingly to an inquiry." (WIC 826(a) and (b).)
Courts have held that the phrase "never to have occurred" means
that the juvenile proceeding is deemed not to have existed.
[ Parmett v. Superior Court (Chrystal B.) (1989) 212 CA3d 1261,
at 1267.]
To seal a juvenile court record, a petition must be filed by
either the subject or the probation department. (WIC 781.)
Juvenile court jurisdiction must have lapsed five years
previously or the person must be age 18. The records are not
sealed if the person of record has been convicted of a felony or
a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude.
No offenses listed in Welfare and Institutions Code section
707(b) may be sealed if the juvenile was 14 years age or older
if at the time of the offense. Additionally, there can be no
pending civil litigation involving the incident.
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