BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 999
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 999 (Bonta)
As Amended May 24, 2013
Majority vote
PUBLIC SAFETY 5-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-0
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Jones-Sawyer, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Mitchell, Quirk, Skinner | |Bradford, |
| | | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, |
| | | |Ammiano, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Weber |
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|Nays:|Melendez, Waldron |
| | |
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SUMMARY : Requires that the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation (CDCR) develop a five-year plan to extend the
availability of condoms in all California prisons; commencing on
January 1, 2015, that no less than five prisons be incorporated
into the program each year; and develop comprehensive plan
including every California prison by the final year. Specifies
that implementation shall be contingent upon receipt of
sufficient donations by CDCR.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Proscribes that any person who participates in an act of
sodomy with any person of any age while confined in any state
prison or local detention facility shall be punished by
imprisonment in the state prison or in a county jail for not
more than one year.
2)Provides that persons participating in an act of oral
copulation while confined in any state prison or local
detention facility shall be punished by imprisonment in the
state prison or in a county jail for a period of not more than
one year.
3)Declares that the spread of HIV/AIDS within prison and jail
populations presents a grave danger to inmates within those
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populations, law enforcement personnel, and other persons in
contact with a prisoner infected with the AIDS virus, both
during and after the prisoner's confinement.
4)Prohibits all sex acts, illegal and consensual, between
inmates.
5)Requires CDCR, contingent on the availability of funding, to
provide HIV/AIDS health and prevention information to inmates.
6)Provides that an inmate may request HIV testing of another
inmate if he or she reasonably believes that he or she has
come into contact with the other inmate's bodily fluids; the
chief medical officer will make the determination whether to
require the testing.
7)Authorizes the chief medical officer to order a test of an
inmate if he or she concludes there are clinical symptoms of
HIV/AIDS as recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
8)Requires probation and parole officers be notified when an
inmate being released from incarceration is infected with
AIDS, and permits these officers to notify certain persons who
will come into contact with the parolee or probationer if
authorized by law.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the cost of providing condom access to inmates via
vending machines, including materials and staff time, is about
$1.50 per inmate the first year, decreasing to about $0.75 per
inmate in subsequent years, once the dispensers have been
purchased and installed. Assuming a fairly regular need to
replace dispensers, and a modicum of additional staff time to
monitor and report on program progress, if condom access was
provided on this basis systemwide in one year, first-year costs
would be about $200,000, declining to about $100,000 in
subsequent years.
Assuming an incremental implementation of five prisons per year,
with an average prison population of 4,000, first year costs
would likely be less than $10,000. Upon full implementation at
all 33 prisons in six or seven years, annual costs would likely
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be in the range of $150,000, assuming an inmate population of
120,000.
This bill is contingent upon donation of materials.
Assuming an annual cost of about $41,000 to treat an
HIV-positive inmate in state prison, meaning if a condom access
program prevents three or four HIV infections annually, the
program would pay for itself.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "The Prisoner Protections
for Family and Community Health Act (AB 999) is an inexpensive,
life-saving measure that will protect prisoners from HIV/AIDS,
and thereby protect the families and communities to which they
will eventually be released.
"Notwithstanding the supposed ban on sexual activity in prison,
it is no secret that inmates commonly engage in sexual activity.
Some of the activity is consensual; some of it is forcible.
But whatever the genesis of the act, the fact is that prisoners
with HIV/AIDS are spreading the disease to others in the
institution and then to additional partners upon release. This
is a vicious cycle of disease that can be immediately improved
by introducing condoms in prisons.
"The HIV infection rate in prison is documented to be five times
higher than in the general population. Most experts believe the
actual infection rate to be far higher than what is documented.
By not distributing condoms in our prisons, we are not only
ignoring the realities of prison, but we are abandoning the
predominantly low-income and minority populations outside of
prison who will eventually have the most contact with these
former inmates.
"And if the moral principles of keeping our low-income and
minority populations safe from deadly disease isn't sufficient
enough of a reason to make condoms available in prison, the
financial considerations are also persuasive. According to the
California Department of Health Services the average cost per
patient with HIV in the Medi-Cal system is $23,964 per year.
Over the life of the patient, a single infection can cost the
state hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"By distributing condoms in prison, our state could not only
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save lives, but it could save a fortune in HIV/AIDS treatment
costs.
"Sex and HIV/AIDS is a fact of life in prison. Our state must
stop ignoring this unsettling and sometimes disturbing subject
and realize that the long-term benefits to the state budget and
the health of future generations are worth this small
inconvenience on CDCR.
"Other bills that have attempted to address the issue took a
broader approach - requiring full implementation upon enactment.
AB 999 takes an incremental approach to the problem by using
the practical results of the successful Solano State pilot
project to guide a more expansive distribution. While AB 999
requires CDCR to develop a five-year plan to offer condoms in
all California prisons, the bill give the department discretion
to do so within the parameters of the recommendations in the
September 2011 report entitled 'Evaluation of a Prisoner Condom
Access Pilot Program Conducted in One California Prison
Facility.'
"It is my intention that the program is implemented in stages,
with the insight of CDCR and the lessons learned from the Solano
pilot guiding the process."
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Gabriel Caswell / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
FN: 0000909