BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2315
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 25, 2000
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Dion Aroner, Chair
AB 2315 (Mazzoni) - As Introduced: February 24, 2000
SUBJECT : Children of incarcerated parents
SUMMARY : Establishes the Children of Incarcerated Parents Act
of 2000 to ensure the temporary and long-term safety of the
children of incarcerated adults. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires, in a criminal case involving an adult defendant, at
the time of a plea or verdict of guilty or nolo contendere,
that:
a) the judge inquire whether the person has any children;
b) the judge refer any case in which a defendant has
children to the local probation department; and
c) the probation department determine, and report back to
the court, whether arrangements have been made for the care
of the defendant's children.
2)Authorizes the court to refer to the family or probate court
or the local child protective services agency any case
involving an adult defendant who has children and who has pled
guilty or has been found guilty.
3)Requires the Attorney General (AG) and the Secretary of the
Health and Human Services Agency (HSSA) to jointly convene a
study group to develop and disseminate a model protocol for
the care of children at the time of their parent's arrest, and
requires that the protocol include:
a) a provision for an arresting police officer to inquire,
at the time of arrest, whether an arrestee has dependent
children; and
b) a provision for sharing information about any children
of an arrestee with child protective services and the
courts within a timeframe specified in the protocol.
4)Requires counties to create standard operating procedures for
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identifying, locating, and arranging for the care of the minor
children of an arrestee, and to update these procedures to
match the requirements of the model protocol developed by the
AG and HSSA study group.
5)Requires the Secretary of HSSA and of the Adult and Youth
Correctional Agency to jointly convene an Advisory Committee
on the Children of Incarcerated Parents to develop
recommendations for targeting state and local services to
children of incarcerated parents.
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EXISTING LAW
1)Requires probation departments to provide care and supervision
to delinquent children who are or may become wards of the
juvenile court.
2)Requires child welfare agencies to provide children with
protection from abuse and neglect and to provide care and
supervision to children who are or may become dependents of
the juvenile court.
3)Authorizes a law enforcement officer to take a child into
custody if the child is without any provision of support, and
authorizes the officer to transfer custody of the child to a
county child welfare worker if the child's parent or guardian
cannot be located.
4)Requires that a child in the temporary custody of a county
child welfare worker be released to the care of a parent or
relative unless there is suspicion that the child is within
the jurisdiction of the juvenile court due to abuse or
neglect.
5)Provides that any child whose parent or parents have been
incarcerated and who has been left without an arrangement for
support is within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and
may be adjudged a dependent of the court.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS :
1)According to the author, approximately 856,000 children in
California have a parent currently involved in the criminal
justice system, representing nearly nine percent of all
children in the state. In addition, 80 percent of female
prisoners are parents with, on average, two children.
2)Under existing law, there is no requirement that an arresting
officer or judge inquire of arrestees or defendants whether
they have any children who may need care and supervision in
their absence. When a person is arrested in the presence of
his or her children, an officer may immediately ascertain
whether the children will have supervision in the parent's
absence. However, when a person is arrested elsewhere, without
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a process for inquiring about children, law enforcement
officers may have no idea whether an arrestee's children will
be left unsupervised while he or she is detained or
incarcerated.
3)This bill requires the establishment of a process for
identifying if an adult has children both at the time of the
arrest and at the time a verdict is determined in court.
Unless the author intends that the first process address
temporary care while a parent is adjudicated, and the second
address long-term care while the parent is incarcerated, these
two processes may be duplicative.
4)Local child welfare agencies, rather than probation
departments, would be the more appropriate local agency to
assess whether the children of arrested or incarcerated adults
are without care and supervision. Probation officers are
trained to identify and work with youth who are delinquent,
truant, or out of the control of their parents. Child welfare
workers, on the other hand, are specifically trained to
identify if children are being provided adequate care and to
locate alternative custodial arrangements for such children.
5)The timeframes in the bill for the development of a statewide
model protocol and recommendations for targeting resources are
quite short. The establishment of a group of quality
membership and the completion of a thorough examination of
statewide solutions may take longer than the six months
permitted in the bill.
6)Opponents argue that the bill would require probation and law
enforcement officers to undertake duties that supersede those
already assigned to child welfare social workers and the
juvenile dependency court. The Judicial Council has raised
concerns that the provision requiring judges to ask every
defendant who pleads guilty or nolo contendere whether they
have children, and to engage the probation department to check
on these children, would present a serious new workload for
already backlogged criminal courts.
7)Suggested Amendments:
a) The bill appears to require that any time a person being
arrested or pleading guilty has children, the status of his
or her children must be identified, even if, for example,
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there are two custodial parents and only one is being
arrested or incarcerated. The Committee may wish to narrow
the scope of the investigation required of the probation
department and both the model protocol and the required
local protocol to those cases in which suspicion exists
that children will be without care by amending the bill as
follows:
i) On page 3, line 7, after "children," insert: "and
the court believes that there may not be any provision
for the care of the children,";
ii) On page 4, line 32, delete "Information" and insert:
"In any case in which the arresting officer suspects that
the children of an arrestee may not have any provision
for care and supervision, information".
b) On page 5, line 9, delete "omitted" and insert
"missing".
c) On page 5, lines 18 and 19, delete "as suggested" and
insert "appointed".
8)AB 2316 (Mazzoni) would require the California Research Bureau
to conduct a study of children whose parents are incarcerated
in California prisons. The study would include a basic survey
of these children's characteristics. It would also attempt to
obtain outcome information in order to determine if any
special needs exist among this group of children and if there
are services that could be provided to them. AB 2316 was
passed by the Public Safety Committee and is awaiting hearing
in the Appropriations Committee.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support :
California Child, Youth & Family Coalition
Los Angeles County District Attorney
Opposition :
California Probation, Parole and Correctional Association
Analysis Prepared by : Andy Shaw / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2247