BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1960|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1960
Author: Perea (D)
Amended: 4/21/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 8-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Hernandez, Morrell, Beall, DeSaulnier, Evans, Monning,
Nielsen, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: De Le�n
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/24/14
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, De Le�n, Knight, Liu, Mitchell,
Steinberg
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-2, 5/15/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : State summary criminal history information: state
hospitals
SOURCE : Department of State Hospitals
DIGEST : This bill requires a director of a state hospital or
a clinician, as defined, to obtain state summary criminal
history information (CHI) on patients only to be used for the
purposes specified, including a patient's violence risk and
appropriate treatment planning.
ANALYSIS :
CONTINUED
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Existing law:
1.Allows the Department of Justice (DOJ) to furnish state
summary CHI to specified entities and, when authorized,
federal-level CHI, upon a showing of a compelling need.
2.Establishes the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications
System (CLETS), whereby qualified law enforcement agencies can
obtain information directly from federal, state, and local
computerized information files.
3.Requires CHI to be furnished by the court to the director of a
state hospital to which a person: is committed for treatment
after he/she pleads not guilty by reason of insanity (NGI); is
found mentally incompetent to stand trial (IST); is found to
be, as a result of mental disorder or impairment by chronic
alcoholism, gravely disabled or a danger to himself/herself,
or others; has attempted or inflicted physical harm to another
person or has made a serious threat of substantial harm
against another person, as a result of mental disorder or
defect while committed for treatment; or is a mentally
disordered sex offender, as specified. Requires inclusion of
the request for evaluation or the order committing the person
to a treatment facility. Allows the director of a state
hospital to receive the CHI from the law enforcement agency
that referred the person for evaluation and treatment, as
specified. Provides that CHI obtained under this provision is
not to be included in any document that will become part of a
public record.
4.Punishes as a misdemeanor any person authorized by law to
receive CHI who knowingly furnishes CHI to a person who is not
authorized by law to receive it.
This bill:
1.Requires a director of a state hospital or a clinician to
obtain CHI for a patient committed to a state hospital.
Defines "clinician" as a state-licensed mental health
professional working within the Department of State Hospitals
(DSH) who has received, and is current in, CLETS training as
required by DOJ, as specified.
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2.Allows CHI to be obtained through CLETS by a law enforcement
officer. Requires law enforcement to cooperate with requests
for CHI and requires the CHI to be provided to the requesting
entity in a timely manner. Allows DSH law enforcement
personnel to act as law enforcement personnel allowed to
obtain CHI through CLETS.
3.Requires CHI obtained through CLETS to be used to assess the
violence risk of a patient, to assess the appropriate
placement of a patient; for treatment purposes of a patient;
for use in preparing periodic reports to courts as required by
statute; or, to determine a patient's progress or fitness for
release.
4.Requires CHI to be placed in a patient's confidential file, to
be accessed only by a director of a state hospital or a
clinician, and to be removed from the file and destroyed
within 30 days of a patient's discharge from a state hospital.
Background
According to DSH, the state hospital patient population has
shifted over the past 20 years, from a 20% forensic population
in 1994 to the current 96%. Forensic patients are committed for
a variety of reasons, including: IST; NGI; mentally disordered
offenders (MDO); and, sexually violent predators (SVP). There
are 4,967 patients at Atascadero, Coalinga, Metropolitan, Napa,
and Patton state hospitals comprising 1,350 NGI; 1,283 IST;
1,154 MDO; 897 SVP; 258 mentally ill Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation commitments; and 25 mentally disordered sex
offenders.
DSH states that despite the significant change, there is no
current legal, regulatory, or physical infrastructure in place
for state hospitals to effectively and safely treat patients who
have demonstrated severe psychiatric instability or extremely
aggressive behavior. DSH also states that currently state
hospitals are authorized to receive CHI for patients committed
as IST and NGI. However, the information must be forwarded by
the courts and is only obtained about 60% of the time, is often
not updated, and cannot be shared with clinicians, who perform
assessments for patient treatment, placement, and violence risk.
According to DSH, in 2013, there were a total of 3,344
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patient-on-patient assaults and 2,586 patient-on-staff assaults
at state hospitals. Of the total patient population, 62% are
non-violent offenders, 36% committed 10 or fewer violent acts,
and 2% committed 10 or more violent acts. Of all the violent
acts committed, 65% are committed by those with 10 or fewer
violent acts, and 35% are committed by those with 10 or more
violent acts. A small subset of the population, 116 people,
commit the majority of aggressive acts. DSH states that the
best indicator of future behavior is past behavior; therefore, a
patient's CHI would enable them to properly assess violence
risk.
CHI . According to DOJ, state and local summary CHI is
confidential and access is strictly regulated by statute. DOJ
provides an automated service for CHI checks that may be
required as a condition of such things as employment, licensing,
and certification. Digitally scanned fingerprints and related
information can be submitted electronically to DOJ within a
matter of minutes and allows CHI to be processed usually within
72 hours, according to DOJ's Web site. DOJ's record retention
policy is to maintain CHI until the subject reaches 100 years of
age. State summary CHI contains the identification and criminal
history of a person, such as name, date of birth, physical
description, fingerprints, photographs, arrests, dispositions,
and similar data.
CLETS . CLETS provides law enforcement and criminal justice
agencies access to various databases and the ability to transmit
and receive point-to-point administrative messages to other
agencies within California or via the National Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System. The CLETS Policies, Practices, and
Procedures document states that agencies desiring to obtain
access the system must submit an application to the CLETS
Executive Secretary for approval by the CLETS Advisory
Committee. All agencies must file a subscriber agreement, which
must be updated every three years, when the head of an agency
changes, or immediately upon request from the CLETS Executive
Secretary. Each subscribing agency must designate an Agency
Terminal Coordinator as the key person to coordinate with DOJ on
matters pertaining to DOJ's criminal justice databases.
Agencies must also designate a Security Point of Contact, who is
the key person to coordinate with DOJ on security matters
pertaining to DOJ's criminal justice databases. Only authorized
law enforcement, criminal justice personnel, or their lawfully
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authorized designees can use CLETS, and any information is
confidential and for official use only.
Comments
According to the author's office, even though more than 96% of
new admissions are committed via the criminal justice system,
currently DSH clinicians do not have comprehensive access to
up-to-date criminal history information for all of these
patients. This bill will provide properly licensed and trained
clinicians at state hospitals with the information necessary to
perform accurate violence risk assessments; place patients
appropriately within the system; create better patient treatment
plans; and, provide reports to the court on the patient's
progress or fitness for release. This bill will help decrease
the level of violence in state hospitals, as well as create
better treatment outcomes for patients.
Prior Legislation
AB 2222 (Block, Chapter 84, Statutes of 2012) provides that a
public prosecutor is not prohibited from accessing and obtaining
information from the public prosecutor's case management
database to respond to a request for information that can be
disclosed to the public under the Public Records Act.
SB 1417 (Cox, Chapter 652, Statutes of 2010) provided access to
CHI to humane officers for purposes of performing duties to
prevent animal cruelty.
AB 428 (Fletcher, Chapter 441, Statutes of 2009) provided access
to CHI to any foreign government as necessary for a person's
application to adopt a child from the foreign nation.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/6/14)
Department of State Hospitals (source)
California Association of Psychiatric Technicians
California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies
California Police Chiefs Association
California Statewide Law Enforcement Association
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Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
National Association of Social Workers
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/6/14)
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The sponsor and other supporters of
this bill argue that in order to conduct accurate assessments on
a patient to ensure proper placement, treatment planning, and
violence risk, as well as to ensure the safety of both patients
and staff, state hospital directors and clinicians must have
access to patients' CHI.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Attorneys for
Criminal Justice (CACJ) oppose this bill because it will
increase the likelihood of a medical determination being
influenced by a prior arrest record, even if the facts of the
case do not provide any insight into the medical condition of
the patient. CACJ argue that a crime that occurred multiple
years ago can be unnecessarily considered without any reason for
violence risk assessment.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 74-2, 5/15/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, 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, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande,
Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. P�rez, V. Manuel P�rez,
Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams,
Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Gatto, Melendez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mansoor, Rendon, Rodriguez, Vacancy
JL:k 8/6/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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