BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 323|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 323
Author: Hayden (D)
Amended: 9/3/99
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 4/13/99
AYES: Vasconcellos, Burton, Johnston, Polanco, Rainey
NOT VOTING: McPherson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 10-3, 6/8/99
AYES: Johnston, Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Escutia, Karnette,
Leslie, McPherson, Perata, Vasconcellos
NOES: Johnson, Kelley, Mountjoy
SENATE FLOOR : 24-11, 6/10/99
AYES: Alarcon, Alpert, Baca, Bowen, Burton, Chesbro,
Costa, Escutia, Figueroa, Hayden, Johnston, Karnette,
Leslie, McPherson, Murray, O'Connell, Ortiz, Peace,
Polanco, Rainey, Sher, Solis, Speier, Vasconcellos
NOES: Dunn, Haynes, Johannessen, Kelley, Knight, Lewis,
Monteith, Morrow, Mountjoy, Poochigian, Wright
NOT VOTING: Brulte, Hughes, Johnson, Perata, Schiff
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 36-31, 9/7/99 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Peace Process Task Force and Commission on
Prison Peace
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill creates the Commission on Prison Peace
CONTINUED
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to address and identify the causes of violence in state
prisons and recommends preventive solutions. The bill also
establishes the Peace Process Task Force to make findings
and recommendations regarding gang violence prevention and
to promote a peace process.
Assembly Amendments :
1. Delete the position of Peace Process Coordinator.
2. Change the make up of the Peace Process Task Force.
ANALYSIS : Existing law defines a criminal street gang as
any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or
more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one its
primary activities the commission of one or more specified
criminal acts, having a common name or common identifying
sign or symbol, and whose members individually or
collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of
criminal gang activity. (Penal Code sec. 186.22(f))
Existing law provides for various penalties for gang
activities, such as the active participation in a criminal
street gang, or the coercion or solicitation of persons
into a criminal street gang. (Penal Code secs. 186.22 and
186.26)
Under current law, various task forces exist. For example,
each county is authorized and encouraged to create a county
task force on violent crimes against women, which must
develop a countywide policy on violent crimes against
women. (Penal Code sec. 14140 et seq.)
Existing law directs the California Department of Justice
to develop and implement the California Gang, Crime and
Violence Prevention Partnership Program. This program was
enacted in 1997 for the purpose of reducing gangs, criminal
activity and youth violence in communities with high
incidences of gang violence. This program appropriates
funds to community-based organizations for prevention and
intervention activities for at-risk youth. (Penal Code
sec. 13825.2)
Existing law establishes the Gang Violence Suppression
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Program in the Office of Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP)
to provide financial and technical assistance for district
attorneys' offices, law enforcement agencies, county
probation departments and other organizations that are
primarily engaged in the suppression of gang violence.
(Penal Code sec. 13826 et seq.)
Under existing law, the Director of the Department of
Corrections is vested with the supervision, management and
control of the State prisons and is responsible for the
care, custody, treatment, training, discipline and
employment of a person confined in those prisons. The
Director may prescribe rules and regulations for the
administration of the prisons. (Penal Code Secs. 5054 and
5058)
This bill creates the Peace Process Task Force, as a joint
project of state government, educational institutions and
private foundations
The Peace Process Task Force shall consist of the eleven
members as follows:
1.Two members would be appointed by the Senate Committee on
Rules: one of whom shall have personal experience with
gang issues; one of whom shall have professional
experience with economic development and job creation in
communities with significant gang and violence problems.
2.Two members would be appointed by the Speaker of the
Assembly: one of whom shall have personal experience
with gang issues, one member shall have academic or
public policy experience with issues related to gangs and
violence.
3.Four members would be appointed by the Governor: one
member shall be a sheriff; one member shall be a chief of
police or a law enforcement officer who has extensive
experience with gang-related violence prevention; one
member shall be a private citizen who has professional
experience with economic development in communities with
significant gang, crime or violence problems.
4.Three members would be appointed by the chair, in
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consultation with the Office of Attorney General. These
members shall include persons whose background include
former gang membership, incarceration, personal efforts
to create gang truces, and a commitment to a peaceful,
legal, and democratic means of resolving the problem of
inner-city violence. When making these appointments the
chair shall ensure that the northern, central, and
southern regions of California are adequately represented
on the task force.
The membership of the task force would reflect the ethnic
and geographic complexity of the gang problem in this
state. The appointments of the members would have to be
made on or before February 15, 2000
The Governor shall select a chair from among the members of
the task force. This individual would have to be confirmed
by the Senate. The chair is responsible for the following
duties:
1.Calling and chairing meetings.
2.Publicly representing the task force when necessary.
3.Leading an inclusive process.
4.Encouraging the maximum involvement of all task force
members.
5.Encouraging support and partnerships with the private
sector and other institutions.
The task force may select up to two vice chairs, select
officers, and establish committees among its members.
Members of the task force would receive no compensation,
however, they would be reimbursed for actual expenses.
The Task Force would be required to do all of the
following:
1.Hold at least four public hearings, with at least two in
communities most heavily marked by urban violence. The
first of these hearings would need to be held no later
than April 15, 2000.
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2.Hold an additional public hearing in a prison setting or
in location where inmate participation or dialogue is
made possible.
3.Include those who created gang truces directly in the
process of defining and recommending alternatives that
will lessen or prevent violence in the inner city.
4.Create a common ground of discussion among public
officials, law enforcement, and those individuals
attempting to transform their lives from violence to
nonviolent empowerment.
5.Identify the local problems and needs of each specific
community as they relate to gangs, violence and crime.
6.Identify strategies related to gang truces, job creation
and other social services to address problems related to
local gang violence and crime.
7.Assess and recommend possible ways of breaking the cycle
of gang violence through early childhood programs,
remedial education and training, inner-city jobs, drug
treatment, and other violence prevention strategies.
8.Provide assistance to local communities suffering from
gang violence.
9.Prepare a comprehensive report, which shall be presented
to the Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees and
the Governor by January 1, 2001, and on January 1st of
the following year concerning the formulation of
comprehensive public policy that identifies state and
local strategies for reducing gang-related crime and
violence.
The Office of the Attorney General shall, and the Senate
Office of Research may, make staff resources available to
the task force for the purpose of providing research,
policy and technical assistance. Other public and private
institutions are encouraged to offer staff and other
in-kind resources.
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The bill provides that no more than $200,000 shall be spent
over two years on expenditures for the four hearings,
publications, staffing and administrative expenses required
by the task force.
The above provisions would sunset on January 1, 2002.
This bill creates the Commission on Prison Peace to
undertake a public review of innovative approaches to
reduce the causes of violence and increase the conditions
of peace and safety in the California correctional system.
The Commission on Prison Peace shall consist of a
commission chair and ten additional members as follows:
1. The chair and five additional members would be
appointed by the Governor upon subsequent approval of the
Senate. The five appointees would have experience and
expertise in corrections or law enforcement, and would
include:
2. Two members would be appointed by the Speaker of the
Assembly.
3. Two members would be appointed by the Senate Committee
on Rules.
4. The Attorney General or a designee.
The legislative appointees shall be academic, religious or
community leaders with demonstrated records of working to
lessen gang violence or prison violence.
The Commission on Prison Peace would be required to do all
of the following:
1.Identify the causes of violence and recommend innovative
approaches to prevent them and increase the conditions of
peace and safety in California's correctional system.
2.Hold public hearings and seek the testimony of
correctional officers, prison inmates, former inmates,
policy experts, academic specialists, and community
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leaders. At least one of the public hearings is to be
held in a prison setting where inmate participation and
dialogue is made possible.
3.Report its preliminary findings no later than September
1, 2000 and its final report no later than December 31,
2000 to the Governor and the Legislature.
The Commission shall initially meet upon the call of the
chair and shall adopt rules governing its proceedings. The
Commission shall operate by consensus or, failing
consensus, shall adopt procedures for noting majority and
minority viewpoints.
This bill would remain in effect until January 1, 2002,
unless extended by a subsequent statute.
Prior legislation :
SB 547 (Watson) passed the Senate 22-10, 9/5/97 and was
vetoed by the Governor. Senate Floor vote:
AYES: Alpert, Brulte, Calderon, Costa, Greene, Hayden,
Hughes, Karnette,
Kopp, Lockyer, McPherson, O'Connell, Peace, Polanco,
Rainey, Rosenthal,
Schiff, Sher, Solis, Thompson, Vasconcellos, Watson
NOES: Hayes, Hurtt Johnson, Kelley, Knight, Leslie, Lewis,
Monteith,
Mountjoy, Wright
NOT VOTING: Ayala, Burton, Craven, Dills, Johannessen,
Johnston, Lee,
Maddy
SB 980 (Hayden) passed the Senate Floor 25-8, 9/11/97 and
was vetoed by the Governor. Senate Floor vote:
AYES: Alpert, Ayala, Burton, Calderon, Costa, Hayden,
Haynes, Hughes,
Johnston, Karnette, Kelley, Kopp, Leslie, Lewis, Lockyer,
Maddy,
O'Connell, Peace, Polanco, Rainey, Rosenthal, Sher,
Solis, Thompson,
Watson
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NOES: Brulte, Hurtt, Johannessen, Johnson, Knight,
Monteith, Mountjoy,
Wright
NOT VOTING: Craven, Dills, Greene, Lee, McPherson, Schiff,
Vasconcellos
SB 980 was an earnest effort to establish a dialogue
directed toward bringing peace to neighborhoods suffering
from gangs in conflict.
But the communication and trust that are the essential
goals of this bill are best achieved when voluntarily
initiated between parties who start with some knowledge of
one another, and when conducted privately out of the glare
of the public spotlight. Public negotiations between
strangers in the high profile setting that will be
inescapably created by a process of statutory appointments
by political officeholders is instead all but guaranteed to
produce rhetoric and advocacy rather than the desired trust
and candor.
With the best of intentions, the proposed process presents
a substantially greater opportunity for raising false
expectations and for highly publicized failure than for
achieving its laudable goals. In fact, it presents a
probability of being counter-productive and creating
cynicism and mistrust.
To minimize the inherently high risks that attend any such
effort to achieve a really useful dialogue, the goals of
this bill will be far better undertaken by a less formal,
less political, less contrived and certainly a less public
process.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02
Fund
Task Force $ 100 $ 50 $ 50
General
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Coordinator/CPP $ 250 Unknown
General
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/9/99)
California Child, Youth and Family Coalition
Trauma Foundation
MADDADS
Attorney General
Jobs for the Future
San Diego Urban League
Communities in Schools
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author:
Over 55 years ago, a Los Angeles Police Department memo on
LA gangs proposed to "take them out of circulation until
they realize that the authorities will not tolerate
gangsterism." Five decades later, gangs in Los Angeles and
across the state are larger, stronger and more violent than
ever, and the war on gangs, drugs and crime has become a
blood-filled urban quagmire.
Young people in inner cities have created gang truces and
are now seeking to replace violence with jobs and hope.
California must include those individuals in a serious
discussion on finding solutions to urban problems. It is
time to give inner cities hope for change through a
committed peace process that places policing in a new
framework of prevention.
Violence in our streets is correlated with violence in our
correctional system and vice versa. California has some of
the most violent prisons in the nation. Several of our
high security prisons are currently under federal and state
investigations for incidents of fatal shootings, staged
rapes and inmate fights, civil rights violations and
investigative cover-ups. Inmate-on-prison guard and
inmate-on-inmate violence is out of control.
We must examine the conditions that lead to violence in our
prisons and implement policies that encourage an atmosphere
of peace and safety--otherwise, the cycle will proceed and
we will continue to export this violent behavior into our
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streets.
SB 323 helps address these issues by including in the
political process the people working to create peaceful
conditions in our neighborhoods and prisons.
Community-based groups like Impacto, F.A.C.E.S.,
Amer-I-Can, Barrios Unidos, Unity One and various other
groups are already working toward creating gang-truces and
encouraging economic development and community empowerment.
By bringing them together with elected officials,
educators, law-enforcement authorities and the clergy, we
can move toward comprehensive solutions to gang and
violence problems in our streets and in out correctional
system.
Unless California engages itself in a peace-oriented
process aimed at solving urban and prison violence, our
policies will continue to fail and generations of young
people will continue to live lives filled with despair and
powerlessness rather than hope and empowerment.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Alquist, Aroner, Bock, Calderon, Cardenas, Cedillo,
Corbett, Davis, Ducheny, Dutra, Firebaugh, Gallegos,
Hertzberg, Honda, Keeley, Knox, Kuehl, Lempert,
Longville, Lowenthal, Machado, Mazzoni, Migden, Reyes,
Romero, Scott, Shelley, Steinberg, Strom-Martin,
Torlakson, Vincent, Washington, Wiggins, Wildman, Wright,
Villaraigosa
NOES: Aanestad, Ackerman, Ashburn, Baldwin, Bates, Battin,
Baugh, Brewer, Briggs, Campbell, Cox, Cunneen, Dickerson,
Frusetta, Granlund, House, Leach, Leonard, Maddox,
Maldonado, Margett, McClintock, Olberg, Oller, Robert
Pacheco, Rod Pacheco, Pescetti, Runner, Strickland,
Thompson, Zettel
NOT VOTING: Cardoza, Correa, Florez, Floyd, Havice,
Jackson, Kaloogian, Nakano, Papan, Soto, Thomson, Wayne,
Wesson
RJG:jk 9/9/99 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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