BILL ANALYSIS
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 76
Author: Senate Public Safety Committee
Amended: 8/20/10
Vote: 27 - Urgency
PRIOR SENATE VOTES NOT RELEVANT
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-1, 8/23/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Inmates: incentive credits
SOURCE : Chief Probation Officers of California
California State Sheriffs Association
DIGEST : Assembly Amendments delete the prior version of
the bill relating to the Budget Act of 2009. This bill now
reduces good-time/work-time credits from one-half to
one-third for persons convicted of misdemeanors while
confined in a county jail.
This bill is very similar to SB 1487 (Senate Public Safety
Committee) which was held under submission this year in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides time credit for work
performance and good behavior to prisoners confined to a
county jail, industrial farm, or road camp, or any city
jail, industrial farm, or road camp. Specifically, except
regarding certain prisoners who are limited to 15 percent
credit against sentenced time, existing law provides that a
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term of four days will be deemed to have been served for
every two days spent in actual custody in one of these
facilities, except that a term of six days will be deemed
to have been served for every four days in actual custody
for prisoners required to register as sex offenders,
prisoners committed for a serious felony, or prisoners with
a prior conviction for a serious or violent felony.
This bill instead provides that prisoners sentenced to
state prison for whom the sentence is executed, except for
those required to register as sex offenders, committed for
a serious felony, or with a previous conviction for a
serious or violent felony, who are confined in a city or
county jail, industrial farm, or road camp, from the date
of arrest until state prison credits are applicable, shall
have one day deducted from his/her period of confinement
for every day the prisoner served in a city or county jail,
industrial farm, or road camp. This bill provides that a
prisoner sentenced to state prison who is confined in a
city or county jail, industrial farm, or road camp may not
receive the day-for-day credit if it appears by the record
that the prisoner refused to satisfactorily perform labor
or failed to satisfactorily comply with rules and
regulations, as specified. This bill provides that, for
prisoners otherwise in a county jail, industrial farm, or
road camp, or any city jail, industrial farm, or road camp
for a crime committed on or after the effective date of
this bill, except those subject to the 15 percent
limitation on credits noted above, a term of six days will
be deemed to have been served for every four days spent in
actual custody. Because this bill changes the punishment
for crimes, it imposes a state-mandated local program.
Comments
According to the author:
"This bill restores the jail inmate credits that existed
before the enactment of the prison reform bill passed
last year.
"Incidental to one of the prison reforms in SBx3 18 from
last year - credits for prison inmates - were changes to
credits for jail inmates. For many years, county jail
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inmates could earn enough credits to reduce their jail
sentence by up to one-third. SB 18x increased these jail
credits to make them consistent with the credit rules for
state prison inmates.
"After SBx3 18 went into effect, we learned that its jail
credit changes would have the unintended effect of
undercutting the community corrections effort launched by
a bill I co-authored last year with our former colleague,
Senator Benoit, SB 678.
"Part of that community corrections model involves judges
using county jail time as an intermediate sanction short
of prison. By reducing available jail time, judges could
be faced with an inadequate custodial alternative to
state prison. The last thing we want to do is fast-track
offenders out of community corrections into prison.
"This bill addresses this concern by restoring the
credits available for jail inmates under the law prior to
the enactment of SBx3 18. This bill does not affect the
prison inmate credit reforms enacted by SBx3 18."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee
analysis:
1. Moderate annual General Fund (GF) costs, potentially in
excess of several hundred thousand dollars, to the
extent:
A. Increasing county jail overcrowding increases the
need for new jail construction and the attendant
costs of bond debt. For example, there is
approximately $600 million remaining in the AB 900
(Solorio), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2007, authority for
county jail construction. To the extent this
authority is used, there will be state GF costs to
pay off the bond. For example, at approximately
$115,000 per bed, the cost of paying off 1,000
additional new jail bed would be approximately $230
million or $7.5 million per year.
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B. This bill reduces state/local options by adding to
the existing county jail overcrowding, which makes it
more difficult to divert lower security state
offenders to the local level. For example, the
Governor estimated his proposal to establish a local
block grant to help offset the costs of transferring
approximately 11,000 state inmates (average daily
population) with less than three years to serve to
local control would save approximately $244 million.
Increasing the local jail population does not make
such restructuring easier.
2. Moderate non-reimbursable local incarceration costs,
potentially in the low millions of dollars to the extent
county jail inmates serve additional time as a result of
reduced credits. Every additional 100 months served
costs approximately $240,000. Because of overcrowding,
thousands of county inmates are released early so the
impact of reducing credits is not as severe as it would
be otherwise.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/25/10)
Chief Probation Officers of California (co-source)
California State Sheriffs' Association (co-source)
California District Attorneys Association
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes,
Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gilmore,
Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nestande,
Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino,
Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio,
Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico,
Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Ammiano
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NO VOTE RECORDED: Furutani, Nava, Vacancy, Vacancy
RJG:mw 8/25/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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