BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair A
2011-2012 Regular Session B
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AB 1835 (Fletcher) 5
As Amended May 25, 2012
Hearing date: June 26, 2012
Penal Code
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SEX OFFENDERS:
STATE-AUTHORIZED RISK ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR SEX OFFENDERS
HISTORY
Source: Sex Offender Management Board
Prior Legislation: AB 1844 (Fletcher) - Chapter 219, Stats. 2010
Support: Peace Officers Research Association of California;
State Coalition of Probation Organizations of California;
California District Attorneys Association
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: Ayes 73 - Noes 0
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD SEX OFFENDER MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS CERTIFIED BY THE
CALIFORNIA SEX OFFENDER MANAGEMENT BOARD HAVE ACCESS TO ALL RELEVANT
RECORDS PERTAINING TO A SEX OFFENDER REGISTRANT, AS SPECIFIED?
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PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to provide sex offender management
professionals certified by the California Sex Offender
Management Board with access to all relevant records pertaining
to a sex offender registrant, as specified.
Current law generally requires persons convicted of enumerated
sex offenses to register within five working days of coming into
a city or county, with specified law enforcement officials in
the city, county, or city and county where he or she is
domiciled, as specified.<1> (Penal Code � 290.)
Current law provides for the use of a "State-Authorized Risk
Assessment Tool for Sex Offenders (SARATSO)," (Penal Code �
290.04) specifies how and by whom the SARATSO shall be
administered, (Penal Code � 290.06.) and establishes a "SARATSO
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<1> Penal Code section 290(b) provides: "Every person
described in subdivision (c) for the rest of his or her life
while residing in, or, if he or she has no residence, while
located within California, or while attending school or working
in California, as described in section 290.002 and 290.01, shall
be required to register with the chief of police of the city in
which he or she is residing, or if he or she has no residence,
is located, or the sheriff of the county if he or she is
residing, or if he or she has no residence, is located, in an
unincorporated area or city that has no police department, and,
additionally, with the chief of police of a campus of the
University of California, the California State University, or
community college if he or she is residing, or if he or she has
no residence, is located upon the campus or in any of its
facilities, within five working days of coming into, or changing
his or her residence or location within, any city, county, or
city and county, or campus in which he or she temporarily
resides, or, if he or she has no residence, is located."
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Review Committee" with the mission of ensuring "that the SARATSO
reflects the most reliable, objective, and well-established
protocols for predicting sex offender risk of recidivism, has
been scientifically validated and cross validated, and is, or is
reasonably likely to be, widely accepted by the courts." (Penal
Code � 290.04(a)(2).)
Current law provides that any person authorized by statute to
administer the SARATSO and trained as specified, and any person
acting under authority from the SARATSO Review Committee as an
expert to train, monitor, or review scoring by persons who
administer the SARATSO, "shall be granted access to all relevant
records pertaining to a registered sex offender, including, but
not limited to, criminal histories, sex offender registration
records, police reports, probation and presentencing reports,
judicial records and case files, juvenile records, psychological
evaluations and psychiatric hospital reports, sexually violent
predator treatment program reports, and records that have been
sealed by the courts or the Department of Justice. Records and
information obtained under this section shall not be subject to
the California Public Records Act, . . . ." (Penal Code �
290.07.)
This bill would amend this provision to provide access to these
records by sex offender management professionals certified by
the California Sex Offender Management Board, as specified.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
("ROCA")
In response to the unresolved prison capacity crisis, since
early 2007 it has been the policy of the chair of the Senate
Committee on Public Safety and the Senate President pro Tem to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate prison
overcrowding through new or expanded felony prosecutions. Under
the resulting policy known as "ROCA" (which stands for
"Receivership/Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation"), the Committee
has held measures which create a new felony, expand the scope or
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penalty of an existing felony, or otherwise increase the
application of a felony in a manner which could exacerbate the
prison overcrowding crisis by expanding the availability or
length of prison terms (such as extending the statute of
limitations for felonies or constricting statutory parole
standards). In addition, proposed expansions to the
classification of felonies enacted last year by AB 109 (the 2011
Public Safety Realignment) which may be punishable in jail and
not prison (Penal Code section 1170(h)) would be subject to ROCA
because an offender's criminal record could make the offender
ineligible for jail and therefore subject to state prison.
Under these principles, ROCA has been applied as a
content-neutral, provisional measure necessary to ensure that
the Legislature does not erode progress towards reducing prison
overcrowding by passing legislation which could increase the
prison population. ROCA will continue until prison overcrowding
is resolved.
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For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation.
On June 30, 2005, in a class action lawsuit filed four years
earlier, the United States District Court for the Northern
District of California established a Receivership to take
control of the delivery of medical services to all California
state prisoners confined by the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation ("CDCR"). 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 January 12, 2010, a
three-judge federal panel issued an order requiring California
to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of design
capacity -- a reduction at that time of roughly 40,000 inmates
-- within two years. The court stayed implementation of its
ruling pending the state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court upheld the
decision of the three-judge panel in its entirety, giving
California two years from the date of its ruling to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity, subject
to the right of the state to seek modifications in appropriate
circumstances. Design capacity is the number of inmates a
prison can house based on one inmate per cell, single-level
bunks in dormitories, and no beds in places not designed for
housing. Current design capacity in CDCR's 33 institutions is
79,650.
On January 6, 2012, CDCR announced that California had cut
prison overcrowding by more than 11,000 inmates over the last
six months, a reduction largely accomplished by the passage of
Assembly Bill 109. Under the prisoner-reduction order, the
inmate population in California's 33 prisons must be no more
than the following:
167 percent of design capacity by December 27, 2011
(133,016 inmates);
155 percent by June 27, 2012;
147 percent by December 27, 2012; and
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137.5 percent by June 27, 2013.
This bill does not aggravate the prison overcrowding crisis
described above under ROCA.
COMMENTS
1. Stated Need for This Bill
The author states:
Current law permits persons authorized to administer
the SARATSO to view all relevant records pertaining to
a registered sex offender only when trained pursuant
to Penal Code Section 290.06. SARATSO administrators
trained pursuant to Section 290.09 are not permitted
the same record access, preventing them from being
able to administer the SARATSO. AB 1835 would expand
record access to SARATSO administrators to include
those trained under 290.09.
2. What This Bill Would Do
This bill would make a technical amendment to existing law by
authorizing persons certified by the Sex Offender Management
board for providing programs for probation or parole-supervised
sex offenders to receive relevant records they need to complete
the static sex offender risk instrument - "SARATSO" - which is
used as part of the assessment of a sex offender's risk. This
is consistent with the provisions of the author's AB 1844,
enacted in 2010, specifically related to implementation of what
is known as the "Containment Model" for dealing with known sex
offenders in the community.
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