BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair S
2013-2014 Regular Session B
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SB 905 (Knight)
As Introduced: January 17, 2014
Hearing date: March 25, 2014
Penal Code
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ASSAULTS BY PRISON INMATES
HISTORY
Source: California District Attorneys Association
Prior Legislation: AB 1026 (Knight) Ch. 183, Stats. 2011
Support: Unknown
Opposition:None known
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE CRIMES OF ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON BY A PRISON INMATE
AND ASSAULT BY A PRISON INMATE BY MEANS OF FORCE LIKELY TO PRODUCE
GREAT BODILY INJURY BE PLACED IN SEPARATE SUBDIVISIONS OF PENAL CODE
SECTION 4501?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to place the crimes of assault with
a deadly weapon by a prison inmate and assault by a prison
inmate by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury
in two separate subdivisions of Penal Code Section 4501, thereby
allowing prosecutors, defense counsel and judges to determine
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SB 905 (Knight)
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the nature of a prior conviction under Section 4501 by reference
to the subdivision under which the defendant was convicted.
Existing law provides that any state prison inmate who assaults
another with a deadly weapon or instrument, or who assaults
another by means of force likely to produce bodily injury, is
guilty of a felony, punishable by a consecutive term of two,
four or six years in prison. (Pen. Code � 4501.)
Existing law provides that if a defendant is convicted of a
felony offense and the defendant has previously been convicted
of two or more serious or violent offenses, as specified, the
court shall impose an indeterminate term of life in prison with
the minimum term of 25 years. Where the defendant has a single
serious prior serious or violent felony, the court shall double
the defendant's prison term. (Pen. Code �� 667, subds. (b)-(i)
and 1170.12.)
Existing law provides that a defendant convicted of a serious
felony shall receive a five-year sentence enhancement for each
prior serious felony conviction. (Pen. Code � 667, subd. (a).)
Existing law provides that assault with a deadly weapon by a
prison inmate is a serious felony. (Pen. Code � 1192.7, subd.
(c)(13).)
This bill reorganizes Penal Code Section 4501 - defining two
forms of assault by prison inmates - by placing the crimes of 1)
assault by a prison inmate by means of force likely to produce
great bodily injury, and 2) assault with a deadly weapon by a
prison inmate in separate subdivisions of the section.
RECEIVERSHIP/OVERCROWDING CRISIS AGGRAVATION
For the last several years, severe overcrowding in California's
prisons has been the focus of evolving and expensive litigation
relating to conditions of confinement. On May 23, 2011, the
United States Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two
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years from the date of its ruling, subject to the right of the
state to seek modifications in appropriate circumstances.
Beginning in early 2007, Senate leadership initiated a policy to
hold legislative proposals which could further aggravate the
prison overcrowding crisis through new or expanded felony
prosecutions. Under the resulting policy, known as "ROCA"
(which stands for "Receivership/ Overcrowding Crisis
Aggravation"), the Committee held measures that created a new
felony, expanded the scope or penalty of an existing felony, or
otherwise increased the application of a felony in a manner
which could exacerbate the prison overcrowding crisis. Under
these principles, ROCA was applied as a content-neutral,
provisional measure necessary to ensure that the Legislature did
not erode progress towards reducing prison overcrowding by
passing legislation, which would increase the prison population.
In January of 2013, just over a year after the enactment of the
historic Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, the State of
California filed court documents seeking to vacate or modify the
federal court order requiring the state to reduce its prison
population to 137.5 percent of design capacity. The State
submitted that the, ". . . population in the State's 33 prisons
has been reduced by over
24,000 inmates since October 2011 when public safety realignment
went into effect, by more than 36,000 inmates compared to the
2008 population . . . , and by nearly 42,000 inmates since 2006
. . . ." Plaintiffs opposed the state's motion, arguing that,
"California prisons, which currently average 150% of capacity,
and reach as high as 185% of capacity at one prison, continue to
deliver health care that is constitutionally deficient." In an
order dated January 29, 2013, the federal court granted the
state a six-month extension to achieve the 137.5 % inmate
population cap by December 31, 2013.
The Three-Judge Court then ordered, on April 11, 2013, the state
of California to "immediately take all steps necessary to comply
with this Court's . . . Order . . . requiring defendants to
reduce overall prison population to 137.5% design capacity by
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December 31, 2013." On September 16, 2013, the State asked the
Court to extend that deadline to December 31, 2016. In
response, the Court extended the deadline first to January 27,
2014 and then February 24, 2014, and ordered the parties to
enter into a meet-and-confer process to "explore how defendants
can comply with this Court's June 20, 2013 Order, including
means and dates by which such compliance can be expedited or
accomplished and how this Court can ensure a durable solution to
the prison crowding problem."
The parties were not able to reach an agreement during the
meet-and-confer process. As a result, the Court ordered
briefing on the State's requested extension and, on February 10,
2014, issued an order extending the deadline to reduce the
in-state adult institution population to 137.5% design capacity
to February 28, 2016. The order requires the state to meet the
following interim and final population reduction benchmarks:
143% of design bed capacity by June 30, 2014;
141.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2015; and,
137.5% of design bed capacity by February 28, 2016.
If a benchmark is missed the Compliance Officer (a position
created by the February 10, 2016 order) can order the release of
inmates to bring the State into compliance with that benchmark.
In a status report to the Court dated February 18, 2014, the
state reported that as of February 12, 2014, California's 33
prisons were at 144.3 percent capacity, with 117,686 inmates.
8,768 inmates were housed in out-of-state facilities.
The ongoing prison overcrowding litigation indicates that prison
capacity and related issues concerning conditions of confinement
remain unresolved. While real gains in reducing the prison
population have been made, even greater reductions may be
required to meet the orders of the federal court. Therefore,
the Committee's consideration of ROCA bills - bills that may
impact the prison population - will be informed by the following
questions:
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Whether a measure erodes realignment and impacts the
prison population;
Whether a measure addresses a crime which is directly
dangerous to the physical safety of others for which there
is no other reasonably appropriate sanction;
Whether a bill corrects a constitutional infirmity or
legislative drafting error;
Whether a measure proposes penalties which are
proportionate, and cannot be achieved through any other
reasonably appropriate remedy; and,
Whether a bill addresses a major area of public safety
or criminal activity for which there is no other
reasonable, appropriate remedy.
COMMENTS
1. Need for this Bill
According to the author:
Penal Code Section 4501 deals with assaults committed by
prison inmates. The section currently contains one
paragraph that covers both the crimes of assault on a
person with a deadly weapon and assault by means of force
likely to produce great bodily injury. Under California
law, assault with a deadly weapon is a serious felony and
thus a strike under the Three Strikes law, while an
assault by force is not. Because Section 4501 does
include separate subdivisions for each form of assault,
prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges often cannot
efficiently determine whether a defendant's prior prison
assault conviction constitutes a serious felony.
When the prosecutor files criminal charges, he or she
reviews the defendant's criminal history to determine if
the defendant has any prior convictions that can or must
be alleged to support enhanced sentencing. Both CCHRS
and CII (databases that contain arrest and conviction
information) list prior convictions by code section.
Prosecutors see "PC �4501" on a defendant's rap sheet,
not knowing if it qualifies as a serious felony or not.
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While the rap sheet often includes some description of
the offense, that provides no certainty, as the
descriptions often refer to both forms of assault, such
as "ASSAULT GBI W/DEADLY WEAPON."
If a prosecutor cannot determine the specific form of a
defendant's prior prison assault conviction from criminal
history databases, the defendant could be incorrectly
charged with a strike allegation. This clogs the court
system with cases that cannot be settled at an early date
because the nature of the prior conviction cannot be
determined until the date of trial, when a transcript,
minute order, or California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) record is obtained.
In 2011 Governor Brown signed AB 1026 (Knight), which
provided the same clarification to crimes committed in
the public sector (PC �245). SB 905 follows suit by
making the same change to the corresponding Penal Code,
preventing the same confusion and court delays when a
crime occurs in a California state prison.
SB 905 does not create new felonies, nor does it expand
the punishment for any existing felonies. It merely
splits Section 4501 into two subdivisions. Subdivision
(a) will define the serious felony of assault with a
deadly weapon. Subdivision (b) will define the
non-serious felony of assault by force likely to produce
great bodily injury. These changes will make assessment
of prior Section 4501 conviction much more efficient,
leading to more accurate and earlier dispositions of
criminal cases.
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2. Three Strikes Law Determinations and other Issues Concerning
Serious Felonies
Assault by a prison inmate by means of force likely to produce
great bodily injury is not classified as a serious felony.
Assault with a deadly weapon by a prison inmate is classified as
a serious felony. (Pen. Code � 1192.7, subd. (c)(13).) A
serious felony constitutes a prior strike conviction for
purposes of the Three Strikes law. (Pen. Code � 667, subds.
(b)-(i).) A defendant who is convicted in the current case of a
serious felony is subject to receive an additional five-year
sentence enhancement for each prior serious felony conviction.
(Pen. Code � 667, subd. (a).) Plea bargaining is limited for
serious felonies. (Pen. Code � 1192.7, subd. (c).) Certain
sentencing and parole options are not available to defendants
convicted of serious felonies. (Pen. Code � 3003.03.)
Myriad non-penal consequences flow from the classification of a
felony as serious. For example, a person convicted of a serious
felony faces employment restrictions, including employment as a
teacher. (Ed. Code � 44332.6.) A prior serious felony
conviction may affect restraining orders. (Fam. Code � 6306.)
It is thus important for prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges
and others who must make decisions based on whether or not a
defendant was convicted of a serious felony to confidently
determine whether or not a person has been convicted of such a
crime. Under existing law the serious felony of assault with a
deadly weapon by a prison inmate and the non-serious offense of
assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury
by a prison inmate are described together in one paragraph of
Penal Code Section 4501. One typically cannot determine the
nature of a person's prior prison assault conviction from a
review of the person's criminal record. This bill would allow
the determination of the nature of a prior assault conviction to
be made on the basis of the statutory designation of each crime.
SHOULD THE CRIMES OF ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON BY A PRISON
INMATE AND ASSAULT BY A PRISON INMATE BY MEANS OF FORCE LIKELY
TO PRODUCE GREAT BODILY INJURY BE PLACED IN SEPARATE
SUBDIVISIONS OF PENAL CODE SECTION 4501?
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3. Related Prior Bill - AB 1026 (Knight) Chapter 183,
Statutes of 2011 - Organization of General Assault
Statute (Applicable to Persons not in Prison)
This bill essentially makes the same changes to the statute
concerning assaults by prison inmates that were made to the
general assault statutes in 2011 by AB 1026 (Knight). As
with AB 1026 in 2011, this bill does not change the
elements of the applicable crimes, the penalty for the
crime or the collateral consequences of the conviction.
This bill simply reorganizes Penal Code Section 4015 to
allow interested parties to determine the nature of the
prior conviction by determining the specific statutory
provision under which the conviction occurred.
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