BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1835
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1835 (Fletcher) - As Amended: May 2, 2012
Policy Committee: Public Safety
Vote: 6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires a sex offender on local post-release
community supervision (PRCS) who is reclassified as a High Risk
Sex Offender as a result of a reassessment, be transferred to
parole supervision by the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
This bill also expands authorized access to all relevant records
pertaining to a registered sex offender, such as criminal
histories, sex offender registration records, police reports,
probation reports, judicial records and psychological
evaluations and psychiatric hospital reports, to include persons
trained to administer the State Authorized Risk Assessment Tool
for Sex Offenders (SARATSO) under a different Penal Code
section.
FISCAL EFFECT
Unknown, potentially moderate ongoing state GF costs depending
on the number of offenders on PERCS transferred from local to
state jurisdiction as a result of a reassessment. CDCR estimates
informally that this has occurred - administratively - about 20
times to date due to incorrect assessments. If 20 persons were
transferred annually to state parole caseloads, at about $15,000
per parolee, annual costs would be in the range of $300,000.
CDCR indicates this fluctuation does not exceed budgeted
projections.
In addition, while the author indicates his intent is simply to
provide statutory clarity for situations in which a procedural
assessment error occurs, the language of this bill also covers
AB 1835
Page 2
potential reclassifications from a change in a dynamic risk
factor. This could result in significant GF costs, in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the extent offenders are
reassessed and returned to CDCR caseloads.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author contends this bill is necessary to
provide explicit statutory authority to transfer a person from
PRCS to state parole if it is determined, post-initial
assessment, the person is a high risk sex offender.
According to the author, AB 1835 will assist in the
implementation of the Containment Model component of Chelsea's
Law. "First, it will provide minor technical cleanup to limit
the potential liability of sex offender management
professionals. Second, the bill will address potential legal
issues which would arise should a sex offender be erroneously
identified as low-risk and transferred to post-release
community supervision. Current law is unclear as to whether
that individual may legally be transferred to state
supervision as a parolee."
2)Current law requires every sex offender in state prison to
undergo a risk assessment via the SARATSO, requires registered
sex offenders on probation or parole to participate in an
approved sex offender treatment program, and requires the sex
offender treatment program to assess each registered sex
offender on probation or parole using the SARATSO dynamic
tool, when a dynamic risk factor changes, as well as a final
dynamic assessment within six months of the offender's release
from supervision.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081