BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1284|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1284
Author: Galgiani (D)
Amended: 4/28/14
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 4-1, 4/22/14
AYES: Anderson, De Le�n, Knight, Steinberg
NOES: Hancock
NO VOTE RECORDED: Liu, Mitchell
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 5/23/14
AYES: De Le�n, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
SUBJECT : Parole: medical parole: compassionate release
SOURCE : California Narcotic Officers Association
DIGEST : This bill makes an individual who is convicted of
first degree murder for killing a police officer ineligible for
compassionate release or medical parole.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.Provides that if the Secretary of the Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Board of Parole
Hearings (BPH), or both determine that the prisoner has six
months or less to live; that the conditions under which the
prisoner would be released do not pose a threat to public
safety and that the prisoner is permanently medically
incapacitated, the CDCR or BPH may recommend to the court that
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the prisoner's sentence be recalled.
2.Provides that in the case of inmates sentenced to
indeterminate terms, the Secretary of the CDCR may make a
recommendation to BPH with respect to inmates who have applied
for consideration for recall and resentencing.
3.Establishes the medical parole program whereby any prisoner
who the head physician of the institution where the prisoner
is located determines is permanently medically incapacitated
with a medical condition that renders him/her permanently
unable to perform activities of basic daily living, and
results in the prisoner requiring 24-hour care, and that
incapacitation did not exist at the time of sentencing, shall
be granted medical parole if the BPH determines that the
conditions under which the prisoner would be released would
not reasonably pose a threat to public safety.
4.Provides that the medical parole law shall not be construed to
alter or diminish the rights conferred under the Victim's Bill
of Rights Act of 2008: Marsy's Law, including notification of
victims of parole proceedings.
5.Requires the BPH, upon receiving a recommendation from the
head physician of the institution where a prisoner is located
for the prisoner to be granted medical parole, to make an
independent judgment regarding whether the conditions under
which the inmate would be released pose a reasonable threat to
public safety, and make written findings related thereto.
6.States that medical parole shall not apply to any prisoner
sentenced to death or life in prison without possibility of
parole or to any inmate who is serving a sentence for which
medical parole is prohibited by any initiative statute.
This bill:
1.Provides that the compassionate release provisions do not
apply if a person is convicted of first degree murder of a
peace officer who is killed while engaged in the performance
of his/her duties and the individual knew or should have known
that the victim was a peace officer.
2.Provides that a prisoner who is convicted of first degree
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murder of a peace officer who the prisoner knew or should have
known was in the performance of his/her duties is not eligible
for medical parole.
Prior Legislation
AB 68 (Maienschein, Chapter 764, Statutes of 2013) requires the
CDCR to give notice at least 30 days prior to a medical parole
hearing or medical parole release, as specified, to the county
of commitment and the county of proposed release.
SB 1399 (Leno, Chapter 405, Statutes of 2010) provides for
medical parole of CDCR inmates under the following circumstances
(1) the inmate is found by the head physician to be permanently
medically incapacitated with a medical condition that renders
him/her permanently unable to perform activities of daily
living, resulting in the need for 24-hour care, and (2) the
Board of Parole Hearings also makes a determination that the
conditions under which the prisoner would be released would not
reasonably pose a threat to public safety.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, potential loss
of significant future cost savings (General Fund) to the extent
formerly eligible inmates convicted of first degree murder of a
peace officer would have otherwise been granted medical parole
or compassionate release. Based on historical releases, the
average annual savings on CDCR custody costs alone for one
inmate released from a hospital/nursing home setting on medical
parole is $750,000 (General Fund).
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/23/14)
California Narcotic Officers' Association (source)
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
California Correction Supervisors
California District Attorneys Association
California Police Chiefs Association
California Probation, Parole and Correctional Association
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California State Sheriffs' Association
Los Angeles Police Protective League
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Riverside Sheriffs' Association
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/23/14)
American Civil Liberties Union
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
California Public Defenders Association
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The California Police Chiefs
Association supports this bill stating:
The clear intent of this provision is to assure that
persons who had committed the most serious of crimes would
not be eligible for Medical Parole. The challenge is that
there was a period in the 1970's when California had
neither a death penalty nor a sentence of life in prison
without the possibility of parole. What this mean is that
persons who committed first degree murder of peace officers
in the line of duty during that period-a crime that would
result in a sentence of death or life in prison without
parole at any other time in California history-were
eligible for Medical Parole or Compassionate Release.
This is not a theoretical problem. In late 2011, Gerald
Youngberg, convicted during the seventies of the execution
style murders of Highway Patrol Officer Larry Wetterling
and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Lieutenant Al Steward,
as well as service station attendant Robert Jenkins, in a
crime described as "evil in all its banality" was approved
for Medical Parole. Fortunately, the national outcry
against this potential miscarriage of justice contributed
to Gerald Youngberg's Medical Parole approval being
rescinded.
Nevertheless, the Youngberg near miss provided an important
teachable moment: persons who murdered peace officers in
the line of duty during that period in California History
where there was neither the death penalty nor life without
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parole should not be permitted to take advantage of that
historical hiatus to obtain Medical Parole of Compassionate
Release. At any other time in California's history they
would have been ineligible for Medical Parole or
Compassionate Release based on the certain sentence of
either death or life without parole for murder of a peace
officer in the line of duty.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The ACLU opposes this bill stating:
The intent of medical parole is to release inmates who
require twenty-four hour care at huge expense to the State.
An inmate living in a persistent vegetative state or
otherwise medically incapacitated is not likely to pose a
threat to public safety, yet the State is responsible for
around the clock-in-custody care at a cost of thousands of
dollars per week.
Moreover, the likelihood that the person sentenced to
prison for the killing of a peace officer will be granted
medical parole is by no means certain. It simply allows an
inmate to petition the Board of Parole Hearings for
release. However, given that the intent of medical parole
was to reduce the financial strain of caring for medically
incapacitated inmates, it makes little sense to begin
excepting our specified offenses for which an inmate is not
eligible, despite being medically incapacitated. If an
inmate meets the requirements specified in the law, he or
she would be eligible for release.
JG:nl 5/23/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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