BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1487|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1487
Author: Senate Public Safety Committee
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/13/10
AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : County jail custody credits
SOURCE : Chief Probation Officers of California
California State Sheriffs Association
DIGEST : This bill revises the amount of sentencing
credits that county jail inmates may earn to a maximum of
one-third of their sentence.
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
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
CONTINUED
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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 repeals the increase in credits made available to
some county jail inmates in SBX3 18 (2009) and return the
credits available to those inmates to a maximum of
one-third of their sentence.
Prior Legislation
SBX3 18 (Ducheny), Chapter 28, Statutes of 2009, which
passed the Senate on 9/11/09 (21-16).
SB 678 (Leno & Benoit), Chapter 608, Statutes of 2009,
which passed the Senate on 5/18/09 (33-0).
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/26/10)
Chief Probation Officers of California (co-source)
California State Sheriffs' Association (co-source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the Senate Public
Safety Committee, last year SB 678 was enacted in an effort
to create incentives for counties to increase community
corrections programs and improve the success rate of
offenders placed on felony probation. This was done in
recognition of the fact that every success on probation
means less crime being committed, fewer victims, and one
less inmate in state prison. Part of that community
corrections model involves judges utilizing county jail
time as intermediate sanctions for minor probation
violations as opposed to sending every offender to state
prison.
Last year the Legislature also passed SB3X 18, which
enacted a number of prison reforms. Incidental to one of
those reforms, credits for prison inmates, were changes to
credits for jail inmates. For many years, county jail
inmates have been able to earn enough credits to reduce
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their jail sentence by up to one-third. SB3X 18 increased
these jail credits to make them consistent with the credit
rules for state prison inmates and, except for serious and
violent offenders, increased these credits to up to
one-half the jail inmate's sentence.
While the credit changes for county jail inmates included
in SB3X 18 were enacted for sound reasons of parity and
consistency, it has been brought to our attention that
these changes will have the unintended effect of
undercutting the community corrections effort launched by
SB 678. In order for the community corrections model to
work, local jail time has to be sufficiently available as a
sanction for probation violations as to constitute an
adequate alternative to state prison. By reducing the
number of days an offender may be sentenced to county jail
to 180, in many circumstances this reduced local sanction
could present judges with an inadequate alternative to a
state prison commitment, and could therefore undermine the
effort to improve public safety outcomes among felony
probationers. This bill addresses this concern by
restoring the credits available for jail inmates under the
law prior to the enactment of SB3X 18. This bill does not
affect the prison inmate credit reforms enacted by SB3X 18.
RJG:nl 4/26/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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