Senate Bill No. 1054

Introduced by Senator Steinberg

February 18, 2014

An act to add Article 4 (commencing with Section 6045) to Chapter 5 of Title 7 of Part 3 of the Penal Code, relating to mentally ill criminal offenders, and making an appropriation therefor.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1054, as introduced, Steinberg. Mentally ill offender crime reduction grants.

Existing law establishes the Board of State and Community Corrections to collect and maintain available information and data about state and community correctional policies, practices, capacities, and needs, as specified.

This bill would require the board to administer and award mentally ill offender crime reduction grants on a competitive basis to counties that expand or establish a continuum of swift, certain, and graduated responses to reduce crime and criminal justice costs related to mentally ill offenders. The bill would require the board, in consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services, to award grants that provide funding for 4 years. This bill would appropriate $50,000,000 from the General Fund in the 2014-15 fiscal year for the mentally ill offender crime reduction grant program, and require that half of that amount be used for adult offenders and half for juvenile offenders.

Vote: ²⁄₃. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of
the following:

(a) A share of the restored mentally ill offender crime reduction
grants, with the enactment of this act, will be dedicated to
improving mental health outcomes for children in the juvenile
justice system.

(b) While California’s youth crime rates are down overall in
California, our courts and juvenile justice facilities are brimming
with children and youth with a broad range of mental health
disorders and unmet treatment needs.

(c) In a 2005 “gap survey” of California probation chiefs, paving
the way for the subsequent realignment of the Division of Juvenile
Justice population to local control, the chiefs identified juvenile
mental health cases as the most significant problem and service
gap they faced. In a later study, Chief Probation Officers of
California documented long stays and high costs related to the
detention of juveniles with mental health problems. State and
national studies confirm, again and again, extremely high rates of
mental health disorders among incarcerated youth, with prevalence
exceeding 70 percent of juveniles in custody. Data from the Board
of State and Community Corrections in 2013 documents the fact
that nearly half of the daily 8,200 juveniles in custody or on
electronic monitoring in California have “open mental health
cases.”

(d) When the mental health needs of young offenders are
ignored, these youth enter a high-risk zone of becoming chronic
adult offenders, committing further crimes and filling up our
already crowded prisons and jails. This comes at a cost in public
safety, a cost to the probation, court, and corrections agencies who
must then deal expensively with the problem on a long-term basis
at the deep end of our jail and prison systems, and a cost to the
taxpayers.

(e) We know that early intervention in these youth mental health
cases is a key to success. The mentally ill offender crime reduction
grant program investment on the juvenile justice side is an
investment in crime prevention. The juvenile justice share of the
mentally ill offender crime reduction grants will support local
investment in proven best-practices, including early diagnoses,
family and community-based treatment models, specialized mental
health courts, and other collaborative models of intervention that
have proven to be successful. The goal, overall, is to break the link
between mental illness and crime as soon as possible, using
state-of-the art assessment and intervention strategies. Early
recognition and treatment in these cases is also critical to our goal
of preventing the escalation of youth mental health disorders into
tragedies like the Sandy Hook school shooting that occurred in
2012.

(f) Modern science tells us that children are developmentally
different from adults. This finding has been embedded in decisions
of the United States Supreme Court in recent years, placing limits
on the death penalty and other punishments imposed on children.
In the foster care sector, important cases like the Katie A. litigation
recognize the need for more effective strategies and collaborative
efforts to address the mental health needs of children without
homes of their own.

(g) The good news is that science and evidence-based studies
point the way to interventions that can stop the cycle of mental
illness and crime early in these young lives. The new mentally ill
offender crime reduction grants will prioritize funding for local
assessments and interventions that promise to produce better youth
outcomes, to lower youth recidivism rates, and to reduce system
workloads and costs that result from failing to address the problem.

(h) Research indicates that a continuum of responses for
mentally ill offenders that includes prevention, intervention, and
incarceration can reduce crime, jail overcrowding, and criminal
justice costs.

(i) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature that grants be
provided to counties that develop and implement a comprehensive,
cost-effective plan to reduce the rate of crime and offenses
committed by persons with serious mental illness and reduce jail
overcrowding and local criminal justice costs related to mentally
ill offenders.

SEC. 2.  

Article 4 (commencing with Section 6045) is added
to Chapter 5 of Title 7 of Part 3 of the Penal Code, to read:

 

Article 4.  Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grants

 

6045.  

The Board of State and Community Corrections shall
administer and award mentally ill offender crime reduction grants
on a competitive basis to counties that expand or establish a
continuum of swift, certain, and graduated responses to reduce
crime and criminal justice costs related to mentally ill offenders,
as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) and subdivision (c)
of Section 5600.3 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.

6045.2.  

(a) To be eligible for a grant, a county shall establish
a strategy committee that shall include, at a minimum, the sheriff
or director of the county department of corrections in a county in
which the sheriff is not in charge of administering the county jail
system, who shall chair the committee, representatives from other
local law enforcement agencies, the chief probation officer, the
county mental health director, a superior court judge, a client of a
mental health treatment facility, and representatives from
organizations that can provide, or have provided, treatment or
stability, including income, housing, and caretaking, for persons
with mental illnesses.

(b) The committee shall develop a comprehensive plan for
providing a cost-effective continuum of graduated responses,
including prevention, intervention, and incarceration, for mentally
ill offenders. Strategies for prevention and intervention shall
include, but are not limited to, both of the following:

(1) Mental health or substance abuse treatment for mentally ill
offenders who have been released from law enforcement custody.

(2) The establishment of long-term stability for mentally ill
offenders who have been released from law enforcement custody,
including a stable source of income, a safe and decent residence,
and a conservator or caretaker.

(c) The plan shall include the identification of specific outcome
and performance measures and a plan for annual reporting that
will allow the Board of State and Community Corrections to
evaluate, at a minimum, the effectiveness of the strategies in
reducing crime and offenses committed by mentally ill offenders
and the criminal justice costs related to mentally ill offenders.

6045.4.  

The Board of State and Community Corrections, in
consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services,
shall award grants that provide funding for four years. Funding
shall be used to supplement, rather than supplant, funding for
existing programs and shall not be used to facilitate the early
release of prisoners or alternatives to incarceration. A grant shall
not be awarded unless the applicant makes available resources in
an amount equal to at least 25 percent of the amount of the grant.
Resources may include in-kind contributions from participating
agencies. In awarding grants, priority shall be given to those
proposals that include additional funding that exceeds 25 percent
of the amount of the grant.

6045.6.  

The Board of State and Community Corrections, in
consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services,
shall establish minimum standards, funding schedules, and
procedures for awarding grants, which shall take into consideration,
but not be limited to, all of the following:

(a) Percentage of the jail population with severe mental illness.

(b) Demonstrated ability to administer the program.

(c) Demonstrated ability to develop effective responses to
provide treatment and stability for persons with severe mental
illness.

(d) Demonstrated history of maximizing federal, state, local,
and private funding sources.

(e) Likelihood that the program will continue to operate after
state grant funding ends.

6045.8.  

(a) The Board of State and Community Corrections,
in consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services,
shall create an evaluation design for mentally ill offender crime
reduction grants that will assess the effectiveness of the program
in reducing crime, the number of early releases due to jail
overcrowding, and local criminal justice costs.

(b) Commencing on June 30, 2015, and annually thereafter, the
board shall submit a report to the Legislature based on the
evaluation design, with a final report due on December 31, 2019.

(c) The reports submitted pursuant to this section shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government
Code.

(d) Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this
section is repealed as of January 1, 2024.

6045.9.  

(a) Funding for mentally ill offender crime reduction
grants shall be provided, upon appropriation by the Legislature,
in the annual Budget Act.

(b) Up to 5 percent of the amount appropriated in the budget
may be available for the board to administer this program,
including technical assistance to counties and the development of
an evaluation component.

SEC. 3.  

There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund
in the 2014-15 fiscal year, fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) for
use by the Board of State and Community Corrections to provide
grants and administer the Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction
Grant Program. Half of the money shall be used for adult offenders
and half of the money shall be used for juvenile offenders.