Oct. 18, 2018

With Governor Brown signing over 1,000 bills into law this year, there is a lot to implement, especially for the State and local governments. CSAC is publishing a series of articles to spotlight new laws that impact counties from each policy area. This week, the report from the Administration of Justice policy area provides information on new laws affecting public safety. Stay tuned for more updates from other policy areas over the next several weeks.

Key AOJ Highlights from the Governor’s Desk with New Laws Taking Effect January 1, 2019 (unless noted)  

SB 10 (Hertzberg) Bail Reform: Neutral – Signed

This measure eliminates California’s money-based bail system and replaces it with a risk-based system that includes pretrial assessment services provided through the courts or public agencies, such as county probation departments. (Chapter 244) – The new bail process is effective October 1, 2019.  Link to the full text of SB 10

SB 1054 (Hertzberg) Pretrial Services: Neutral – Signed

This measure is clean-up legislation for SB 10 that focuses on the expansion of release prohibitions listed in SB 10. (Chapter 980) Link to the full text of SB 1054

AB 1810 (Budget Committee) Health: Neutral - Signed

This measure authorizes pre-trial diversion programs for individuals with certain mental disorders alleged to have committed a misdemeanor or felony offense. (Chapter 34) In effect as of July 2018. Link to the full text of AB 1810

SB 215 (Beall) Mental Health Diversion: Support – Signed

This measure remedies a number of concerns  related to the new  jail diversion program for people experiencing mental illness created by AB 1810 (Chapter 34, Statutes of 2018).  Specifically, the bill excludes certain violent offenses from the diversion program (including murder and sex offenses) and preserves victim restitution. (Chapter 1005) Link to the full text of SB 215

AB 372 (Stone, M) Domestic Violence Batterer Programs: Sponsor – Signed

This measure authorizes a pilot program that allows the counties of Napa, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Yolo to offer an alternative to the batterer’s treatment program. CSAC sponsored this bill to serve as the first step in assessing whether alternative approaches are more effective in addressing the criminogenic needs of batterers and reducing recidivism.  (Chapter 290) – Effective July 1, 2019 Link to the full text of AB 372

SB 931 (Hertzberg) Conservatorship Status: Support - Signed

This measure amends the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act to specify that custody status cannot be used as the sole reason to postpone the psychiatric conservatorship evaluation process. Delaying conservatorship evaluations often has the effect of keeping individuals in custody longer than necessary.  CSAC supported this measure because it seeks to address this issue by prohibiting a conservatorship investigator from failing to schedule an investigation based solely upon the custody status of the individual. (Chapter 458) Link to the full text of SB 931

SB 1106 (Hill) Transitional Youth Program: Support- Signed

This measure extends the operative date of the existing Transitional Age Youth pilot program to January 1, 2022, and expands the scope of the program to include Ventura County. CSAC supported this measure because it will allow more young adult offenders to be housed in local juvenile detention facilities, instead of adult local detention facilities, where they will have access to these services. (Chapter 1007) Link to the full text of SB 1106

Additional News

SB 1303 (Pan) Coroner/Medical Examiner Officers: Oppose – Vetoed

This measure would have imposed a costly new mandate that required non-charter counties with a population of 500,000 or greater to replace the Office of Coroner or Sheriff-Coroner with an Office of Medical Examiner by January 1, 2020. Alternatively, they could have adopted a policy requiring referral of death investigations to a county that has implemented an Office of Medical Examiner. CSAC strongly opposed this measure because of the erosion of local control and encouraged counties to also oppose this bill and submit their own veto requests. (Vetoed) Link to the full text of SB 1303

AB 2720 (Waldron) Juvenile Reentry Funds: Oppose – Vetoed

This measure would have authorized county probation departments to use the constitutionally protected Juvenile Reentry Grant Special Account for rehabilitative services for persons who have been discharged from a juvenile court’s jurisdiction within the prior two years. CSAC opposed this measure because the Juvenile Reentry Grant Special Account is not the appropriate funding source to provide said services. (Vetoed) Link to the full text of AB 2720

Signing and veto request letters to the Governor can be found on the CSAC legislative tracking website.