BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1623|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1623
Author: Atkins (D)
Amended: 4/21/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/10/14
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, De Le�n, Knight, Liu, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mitchell
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 4/28/14 - See last page for vote
(Consent)
SUBJECT : Family justice centers
SOURCE : National Family Justice Center Alliance
DIGEST : This bill authorizes a city, county, city and county,
or nonprofit organization to each establish a family justice
center (FJC), as specified.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Authorizes each county to establish interagency domestic
violence death review teams to assist in reviewing domestic
violence deaths and facilitating interagency communication.
2.Provides that information developed by or shared among members
of domestic violence death review teams shall remain
CONTINUED
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confidential, as specified.
3.Authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to work with
specified agencies and organizations to develop a protocol for
the integration and coordination of state and local efforts to
address fatal domestic violence through the creation of a
statewide, collaborative domestic violence death review team.
4.Authorizes DOJ, with the cooperation of specified
organizations and agencies, to coordinate and integrate state
and local efforts to address fatal child abuse and neglect,
and to create a body of information to prevent child abuse.
5.Provides that a victim has a privilege to refuse to disclose,
and to prevent another from disclosing, a confidential
communication between the victim and a sexual assault
counselor, a domestic violence counselor, or a human
trafficking caseworker.
This bill:
1.Defines FJC as multiagency, multidisciplinary service centers
where public and private agencies assign staff members to
provide services to victims of domestic violence, sexual
assault, elder or dependent adult abuse, or human trafficking
from one location in order to reduce the number of times
victims must tell their story, reduce the number of places
victims must go to for help, and increase access to services
and support for victims and their children. States that staff
at a FJC may be comprised of, but are not limited to, the
following:
A. Law enforcement personnel;
B. Medical personnel;
C. District attorneys and city attorneys;
D. Victim-witness program personnel;
E. Domestic violence shelter staff;
F. Community-based rape crisis, domestic violence, and
human trafficking advocates;
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G. Social service agency staff members;
H. Child welfare agency social workers;
I. County health department staff;
J. City or county welfare and public assistance workers;
AA. Nonprofit agency counseling professionals;
BB. Civil legal service providers;
CC. Supervised volunteers from partner agencies; and
DD. Other professionals providing services.
1.Prevents a FJC from denying victims services on the grounds of
criminal history and prohibits conducting criminal history
searches on a victim at a FJC without the victim's written
consent, unless the criminal history search is pursuant to an
active criminal investigation.
2.Prohibits a FJC from requiring a crime victim to participate
in the criminal justice system or cooperate with law
enforcement in order to receive counseling, medical care, or
other services at a FJC.
3.Requires each FJC to consult with specified relevant agencies
in partnership with survivors of violence and abuse and their
advocates in the operations process of the FJC and to
establish procedures for the ongoing input, feedback, and
evaluation of the FJC by survivors of violence and abuse and
community-based crime victim service providers and advocates.
4.Requires each FJC to develop policies and procedures, in
collaboration with local community-based crime victim service
providers and local survivors of violence and abuse, to ensure
coordinated services are provided to victims and to enhance
the safety of victims and professionals at the FJC who
participate in affiliated survivor-centered support or
advocacy groups.
5.Requires each FJC to maintain a formal client feedback,
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complaint, and input process to address client concerns about
services provided or the conduct of any FJC professional,
agency partners, or volunteers providing services in the FJC.
6.Provides that nothing in these provisions is intended to
abrogate existing laws regarding privacy or information
sharing and requires FJC staff to comply with the laws
governing their respective professions.
7.Requires each FJC to maintain a client consent policy and to
be in compliance with all state and federal laws protecting
the confidentiality of the types of information and documents
that may be in a victim's file, including, but not limited to,
medical, legal, and victim counselor records.
8.Requires each FJC to have a designated privacy officer to
develop and oversee privacy policies and procedures consistent
with state and federal privacy laws and the Fair Information
Practice Principles. Provides that at no time shall a victim
be required to sign a client consent form to share information
in order to access services.
9.Requires each FJC to obtain informed, written, reasonably
time-limited consent from the victim before sharing
information obtained from the victim with any staff member or
agency partner, except in either of the following cases:
A. A FJC is not required to obtain victim consent before
sharing information obtained from the victim with any staff
member or agency partner if the person, with the sensitive
information, is a mandated reporter, a peace officer, or a
member of the prosecution team and is required to report or
disclose specific information or incidents. These persons
are required to inform the victim that they may share
information obtained from the victim without the victim's
consent.
B. Each FJC is required to inform the victim that
information disclosed to staff or partner agencies at the
FJC may be shared with law enforcement without the victim's
consent if there is a mandatory duty to report, or the
client is a danger to himself/herself, or others. Each FJC
is required to obtain written acknowledgement that the
victim has been informed of this policy.
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1.Provides that a victim's authorization for sharing information
within a FJC shall not be construed as a universal waiver of
any existing evidentiary privilege that makes confidential any
communications or documents between the victim and any service
provider.
2.Prohibits the disclosure, to any third party, of any oral or
written communication or any document authorized by the victim
to be shared for the purposes of enhancing safety and
providing more effective and efficient services to the victim,
unless that third-party disclosure is authorized by the
victim, or required by other state or federal law or by court
order.
3.Provides that an individual staff member, volunteer, or agency
that has victim information governed by these provisions shall
not be required to disclose that information unless the victim
has consented to the disclosure or it is otherwise required by
other state or federal law or by court order.
4.Provides that disclosure of information consented to by the
victim in a FJC, made for the purposes of clinical assessment,
risk assessment, safety planning, or service delivery, is not
a waiver of any specified privilege or confidentiality
provision, the lawyer-client privilege, the physician-patient
privilege, the psychotherapist-patient privilege, the sexual
assault counselor-victim privilege, or the domestic violence
counselor-victim privilege.
5.Requires each FJC to maintain a formal training program with
mandatory training for all staff members, volunteers, and
agency professionals of at least eight hours per year on
subjects including, but not limited to, privileges and
confidentiality, information sharing, risk assessment, safety
planning, victim advocacy, and high-risk case response.
Comments
According to the author's office, FJCs are a best practice model
for delivering supportive services to victims of various crimes,
but mostly focused on victims of sexual and domestic abuse.
This model works by bringing together specialized resources in
one location to provide better and more convenient services to
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victims and their children. The key difference between FJCs and
other multi-disciplinary models is the presence of police
officers and prosecutors.
The full-time presence of these criminal justice system
professionals in FJCs creates special issues, necessitates
special policies and procedures and requires separate
definitions in state law to protect victim confidentiality and
promote responsible information sharing among community-based
and government-based agencies.
Each service provider at FJCs is bound by the standards of their
respective profession; however there is currently no
over-arching structure in law defining the boundaries between
these partnerships.
This is unacceptable because there are currently 17 FJCs
operating in California with six additional sites under
development. Last year, California FJCs helped 14,000 clients.
This bill will ensure that helping victims is the first priority
at FJCs. Specifically, AB 1623 will protect victims by
explicitly stating that they need not participate in the
criminal justice system in order to obtain services and that
informed client consent is required before information can be
shared among partner agencies.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/11/14)
National Family Justice Center Alliance (source)
AFSCME
Alameda County District Attorney, Nancy O'Malley
Alameda County Family Justice Center
American Academy of Pediatrics
California Association for Health Services at Home
California Catholic Conference
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault
California Correctional Peace Officers Association
California Law Enforcement Association of Records Supervisors
California Medical Association
California Probation, Parole and Correctional Association
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California State Association of Counties
California Teachers Association
Chief Probation Officers of California
L.A. County Probation Officers Union
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
One Safe Place Shasta
Riverside Sheriffs Association
Sacramento District Attorney, Jan Scully
San Diego District Attorney, Bonnie Dumanis
San Diego Dress for Success
San Diego Police Department
San Diego VOICES
Sonoma County Family Justice Center
Stanislaus County Family Justice Center
West Contra Costa Family Justice Center
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 4/28/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez,
Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski,
Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mansoor, Vacancy
JG:e 6/11/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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