Overview
Californians for Safety and Justice was proud to support the following pieces of legislation in 2016:
SB 1466 (Mitchell) – Mental Health Services for Foster Children This bill would require that all child welfare system and probation-involved youth who have been removed from their homes receive specific screenings for trauma as part of regular screenings under Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment program (EPSDT). Trauma among youth often goes undetected and providing a trauma-specific screening tool for evaluating children will help get children earlier access to therapies and counseling that meet their needs.
Status: Passed Legislature, Vetoed by Governor on 9/28/16.
SB 1404 (Leno) – Victims of Violent Crimes: Trauma Recovery Centers This bill would establish minimum standards for trauma recovery centers (TRC’s) in California. Because TRC’s now get funding from Proposition 47 savings, it is important to ensure that those dollars go to services designed to meet the greatest needs survivors have. This bill would provide the Victim’s Compensation Board with guidance to help ensure that funds go to the most critical of trauma services.
Status: Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 2177 (Maienschein) – Victims of Crime Act Funding Advisory Committee This bill would create a Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) advisory committee within the Office of Emergency Services (OES). The Committee would hold two public meetings annually to review proposed expenditure of federal VOCA funds and to evaluate the efficacy of funded programs. The Committee would be empowered to make recommendations to OES on future funding needs and program improvements and would be comprised largely of crime survivors.
Status: Passed Legislature, Vetoed by Governor on 8/26/16.
SB 1110 (Hancock) – Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion This bill would create three Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) pilot programs in California. LEAD is a harm reduction diversion program that offers alternatives to incarceration for people suffering from drug addiction. Created in Seattle, the program has successfully reduced recidivism and improved outcomes for people trapped in the cycle of addiction.
Status: LEAD Program was approved as part of the 2016-17 Budget; SB 1110 language was made part of Budget Trailer Bill SB 843; Passed Legislature, Signed by Governor on 6/27/16.
AB 2765 (Weber) Proposition 47 Petition Deadline This bill would extend the deadline for courts to carry out the record changing process for Proposition 47-eligible records that predate the ballot initiative by five years beyond the existing sunset, to November 4, 2022. Without this additional time, all petitioners seeking changes to their records will be required to file motions and courts will schedule good cause hearings for each petition prior to granting the record change.
Status: Passed Legislature, Signed by Governor on 9/28/16
Proposition 47 savings for 2016-2017 fiscal year
Proposition 47, approved overwhelmingly by California voters in 2014 and which reduces the penalty for six low-level, nonviolent crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor, has already successfully reduced the populations of prisons and jails around the state and provided people second chances in their lives by allowing them to reduce old felony convictions on their criminal records to misdemeanors. The 2016-2017 budget adopted by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown shows Prop. 47 is also making good on its promise to save tens of millions of dollars annually that will be reallocated to community-based crime prevention programs. Included in the budget is nearly $68 million in funding for Proposition 47 investment programs, including drug and alcohol rehabilitation, mental health treatment, trauma recovery services for victims of crime and truancy and dropout prevention programs for at-risk schoolchildren.