BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 999|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 999
Author: Bonta (D)
Amended: 9/3/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 6/25/13
AYES: Hancock, Block, De Le�n, Liu, Steinberg
NOES: Anderson, Knight
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-2, 8/30/13
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-27, 5/29/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Prisoner Protections for Family and Community Health
Act
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to develop a five-year
plan to expand the availability of condoms in all California
prisons, as specified, and will be known as the Prisoner
Protections for Family and Community Health Act.
ANALYSIS : Under existing law, the Secretary of CDCR is vested
with the supervision, management, and control of the state
prisons and is responsible for the care, custody, treatment,
training, discipline and employment of a person confined in
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AB 999
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those prisons. The Director may prescribe rules and regulations
for the administration of the prisons.
Existing law:
1.Declares that the spread of HIV/AIDS within prison and jail
populations presents a grave danger to inmates within those
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.
2.Prohibits all sex acts, illegal and consensual, between
inmates.
3.Requires CDCR, contingent on the availability of funding, to
provide HIV/AIDS health and prevention information to inmates.
4.Provides that a law enforcement employee, custodial staff, or
an inmate may request HIV testing of another inmate if he/she
reasonably believes that he/she has come into contact with the
other inmate's bodily fluids. Provides that the chief medical
officer will make the determination whether to require the
testing.
5.Authorizes the chief medical officer to order a test of an
inmate if he/she concludes there are clinical symptoms of
HIV/AIDS, as recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
6.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.
7.Requires CDCR to pay for medical costs, including those
associated with HIV/AIDS infections.
8.Provides 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.
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9.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.
This bill:
1.Requires CDCR, based on the recommendations contained in the
Report of the California Department of Health, "Evaluation of
a Prisoner Condom Access Pilot Program Conducted in One
California State Prison Facility," and in light of the
successful pilot project conducted at California State Prison,
Solano, develop a five-year plan to expand the availability of
condoms in all California prisons.
2.Requires that, beginning January 1, 2015, no less than five
prisons, as determined by the department, be incorporated into
the program each year, with the final year yielding a
comprehensive plan that includes every prison in the state.
3.Requires that CDCR, in developing the plan, consider all of
the following recommendations that were made in the report:
A. Initiate and incrementally expand a program to provide
inmates with access to condoms while continuing to monitor
the safety and acceptability of the program.
B. Consider additional pilot studies in settings that may
pose a serious health or safety risk, for example, higher
security facilities or housing for inmates with serious
mental health problems.
C. Mount dispensers in discreet locations to provide
confidential access and increase accessibility by
minimizing inoperability due to vandalism. Dispensers with
solid steel construction and protected locks are available
that are more tamper resistant than those used in the pilot
study.
D. Consider making condoms available confidentially upon
request during a medical or mental health visit, in
addition to dispensing machines.
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E. Provide information to staff and inmates describing
findings from the current study demonstrating that safety
and security were not impacted by the distribution of
condoms.
F. Include inmate peer educators, inmates' men's and
women's advisory counsels, and medical, public health, and
custody staff in local institutional condom program
planning and implementation.
1.Provides that all nonadministrative costs of the program,
including the dispensers and condoms, shall be paid for
through donations and the implementation of this program is
contingent upon sufficient donations being made to CDCR.
2.Authorizes CDCR to decline implementation of the program at a
particular prison if CDCR determines that program
implementation will be unsafe for a reason that is unique to
that prison. Specifies that CDCR provide an explanation, in
an addendum to the prepared comprehensive plan, why the reason
overcomes the findings contained in the report, "Evaluation of
a Prisoner Condom Access Pilot Program Conducted in One
California State Prison Facility."
3.Makes a number of legislative declarations and findings.
Background
According to CDCR's data, an average of 1,240 inmates are
infected with HIV/AIDS in California's prisons. CDCR estimates
the cost of care for these inmates at over $18 million. Because
CDCR does not require HIV testing, the true number of infected
inmates is unknown. According to the University of California,
San Francisco, the rate of HIV infection among inmates is eight
to ten times higher than among the general population. Studies
attribute this high rate to intravenous drug use prior to
incarceration. Due to the difficulty in conducting studies and
limited availability of information, the causes of infection for
inmates after incarceration are unknown. However, these studies
estimate that sexuality activity is the leading cause for HIV
infection in prison.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
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According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Based on reported data from the pilot project, first year
costs for a statewide program will cost approximately $200,000
based on a cost per inmate of $1.50 in the first year,
including the initial cost of the dispensers, decreasing to
$100,000 statewide, based on a cost of $0.76 per inmate for
subsequent years.
Potential future annual costs to the CDCR in the range of
$100,000 (General Fund) to the extent sufficient donations are
no longer received after initial implementation of the
program. While implementation of the program is contingent
upon sufficient donations to CDCR, ongoing operation of the
program is not similarly subject to this requirement.
Annual CDCR costs of less than $25,000 (General Fund) to
administer and monitor the program.
Potential out-year significant savings in medical-related
costs to the CDCR and community at large to the extent the
availability of condoms results in fewer cases of HIV/AIDS.
It is estimated that very few HIV infections (less than four
cases) would need to be prevented for a cost-neutral program.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/30/13)
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Project Los Angeles
Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association
Allen Temple Health & Social Services Ministries
American Civil Liberties Union of California
Beyond Aids
California Academy of Preventive Medicine
California Medical Association
California Prevention and Education Project
California Public Defenders Association
Health Officers Association of California
L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center
Lambda Legal
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
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Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : 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,
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
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
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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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-27, 5/29/13
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra,
Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos,
Chau, Chesbro, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Frazier, Garcia,
Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Medina, Mitchell, Mullin,
Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk,
Rendon, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams,
Yamada, John A. P�rez
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Ch�vez, Conway, Cooley, Dahle,
Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Jones,
Logue, Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez, Morrell, Nestande,
Olsen, Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Salas, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brown, Fox, Holden, Linder, Vacancy
JG:MW:nl 9/3/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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