BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
134 (Liu)
Hearing Date: 01/19/2010 Amended: 03/24/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety
7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: This bill creates new rights for incarcerated
juvenile who are parents, and places new requirements on
detention facilities in which they are housed. This bill:
1) Requires that local juvenile detention facilities "consider
the well-being" of the
children of parents who are in the custody of those
facilities, as specified;
2) Requires that visitation policies in local juvenile
detention facilities provide
opportunities for meaningful contact between incarcerated
parents and their
children, as specified;
3) Requires that telephone access in local juvenile detention
facilities be extended to
apply to juveniles and their own children when they are
involved in caring for their
children, and to the child's other parent, caregiver,
social worker, teacher, physician,
other service providers for the child, and any other
individuals who are involved in
the upbringing and care-giving of the child, as specified;
4) Provides wards in the state Division of Juvenile Facilities
(DJF) the right to maintain
frequent and continuing contact with the "other parent of
a child and the child's
caregiver, social worker, teacher, physician, and other
service providers involved in
the upbringing and care-giving of the child," as
specified;
5) Provides that DJF shall encourage telephonic and written
communication between
wards and their children, the other parent or person
involved "with the upbringing
and caretaking of their child," except "in cases where it
is documented that such
contact is not in the best interest of the child," as
specified.
6) Makes legislative findings and declarations.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
State Mandates on local Potentially substantial
reimbursable mandates General
juvenile facilities: phone
rights; visitation policy
DJF phone policy changes ***Likely minor and absorbable***
General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
This bill expands, in statute, the telephone and visitation
rights juveniles wards who are parents. While it does not appear
to substantially change DJF policies and practices, it imposes
new state mandates on local juvenile detention facilities. Local
juvenile detention facilities are primarily administered at the
county level. These individual facilities range in scope,
service, and security, and vary widely both within a county and
county-to-county.
Page 2
SB 134 (Liu)
This bill requires local juvenile detention facilities to
"consider the well-being of the children of parents who are in
the custody of those facilities. Visitation policies shall
provide opportunities for meaningful contact between
incarcerated parents and their children. 'Meaningful contact'
shall include, when feasible, contact visits." It is unclear
what would be considered "opportunities for meaningful contact"
other than contact visits. Moreover, the bill requires contact
visits "when feasible." Contact visits with juveniles are
monitored, and a state mandate for contact visits whenever they
are feasible will likely result in a state mandate claim for the
cost of additional staff to monitor these visits. Los Angeles
County estimates that the additional contact visits would
require to 1 PY per facility, or 10-15 PYs for the county.
Current law allows the administrators of local juvenile
facilities to set their own telephone policies. This bill
requires that a juvenile who is a parent "involved in caring for
his or her child" be permitted to call to his or her child, and
"the child's other parent, caregiver, social worker, teacher,
physician, other service providers for the child, and any other
individuals who are involved in the upbringing and caregiving of
the child, within the restriction policy for telephone use at
the local juvenile detention facility." While this bill
specifies that it does not intend for parents to be allowed
additional telephone calls, it does potentially change
procedures at local juvenile facilities by state mandate.
In certain facilities, juvenile wards have an approved list of
people they can call. In those cases, this bill could expand the
list to include virtually anyone in the wards life, with the
language "any other individuals who are involved in the
upbringing and caregiving of the child." Moreover, it is unclear
if, and how, the juvenile ward will demonstrate the involvement
of the person s/he wishes to call. Juvenile facilities will have
to develop new procedures for implementing these requirements,
and the workload to create and implement new policies may
constitute a reimbursable mandate.
Under existing policy, juvenile wards in DJF can call virtually
anyone, during their allowed telephone use. To the extent that
this bill is only interpreted to specifically allow wards to
contact to individuals listed, it does not change DJF practice.
One provisions of this bill, however, is ambiguous with regard
to its impact on the overall number telephone calls guaranteed
to wards.
Staff recommends that Section 4 be amended to clarify that
authorizing contact with the specified additional persons does
not entitle a ward to an increased number or length of calls.