SB 875: Crimes: parole. | Digital Democracy

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Existing law establishes the procedure by which the Board of Parole Hearings considers an indeterminately sentenced incarcerated persons suitability for parole and generally requires a panel of the board, or the board, sitting en banc, to grant parole on the incarcerated persons minimum eligible parole date unless it determines that the gravity of the current convicted offense or offenses, or the timing and gravity of current or past convicted offense or offenses, is such that consideration of the public safety requires a more lengthy period of incarceration.

This bill would prohibit the board from considering discriminatory factors when reaching a finding of unsuitability for parole, including, among other factors, the persons race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, cultural or religious affiliation, and cognitive, speech, or physical impairment.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that the lead agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. Existing law makes the selection of a location for a particular campus, the approval of a long range development plan, and the approval of a project on a particular campus or medical center of public higher education subject to CEQA, as specified. Existing law specifies that compliance with these provisions satisfies the obligations of public higher education pursuant to CEQA to consider the environmental impact of academic and enrollment plans, as specified.This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to the latter provision.

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The people of the State of California do enact as follows:SECTION 1.Section 3041 of the Penal Code is amended to read:3041.

(a)(1)In the case of any inmate incarcerated person sentenced pursuant to any law, other than Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 1170) of Title 7 of Part 2, the Board of Parole Hearings shall meet with each inmate incarcerated person during the sixth year before the inmates incarcerated persons minimum eligible parole date for the purposes of reviewing and documenting the inmates individuals activities and conduct pertinent to parole eligibility. During this consultation, the board shall provide the inmate incarcerated person information about the parole hearing process, legal factors relevant to his or her their suitability or unsuitability for parole, and individualized recommendations for the inmate incarcerated person regarding his or her their work assignments, rehabilitative programs, and institutional behavior. Within 30 days following the consultation, the board shall issue its positive and negative findings and recommendations to the inmate incarcerated person in writing.

(2)One year before the inmates incarcerated persons minimum eligible parole date a panel of two or more commissioners or deputy commissioners shall again meet with the inmate incarcerated person and shall normally grant parole as provided in Section 3041.5. No more than one member of the panel shall be a deputy commissioner.

(3)In the event of a tie vote, the matter shall be referred for an en banc review of the record that was before the panel that rendered the tie vote. Upon en banc review, the board shall vote to either grant or deny parole and render a statement of decision. The en banc review shall be conducted pursuant to subdivision (e).

(4)Upon a grant of parole, the inmate incarcerated person shall be released subject to all applicable review periods. However, an inmate incarcerated person shall not be released before reaching his or her their minimum eligible parole date as set pursuant to Section 3046 unless the inmate incarcerated person is eligible for earlier release pursuant to his or her their youth offender parole eligibility date or elderly parole eligible date.

(5)At least one commissioner of the panel shall have been present at the last preceding meeting, unless it is not feasible to do so or where the last preceding meeting was the initial meeting. Any person on the hearing panel may request review of any decision regarding parole for an en banc hearing by the board. In case of a review, a majority vote in favor of parole by the board members participating in an en banc review is required to grant parole to any inmate. incarcerated person.

(b)(1)The panel or the board, sitting en banc, shall grant parole to an inmate incarcerated person unless it determines that the gravity of the current convicted offense or offenses, or the timing and gravity of current or past convicted offense or offenses, is such that consideration of the public safety requires a more lengthy period of incarceration for this individual. The board shall not consider any discriminatory factor in reaching a finding of unsuitability for parole, including, but not limited to, any of the following:

(A)The persons race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or cultural or religious affiliation.

(B)The persons cognitive, speech, or physical impairment.

(C)The persons current or prior history of mental illness or a substance use disorder unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the illness or disorder cannot be effectively managed in the community.

(D)The persons housing status at the time of conviction, current or prior employment history, socioeconomic status, or education level.

(E)The persons relations or prior association with a group of persons who share the persons race, ethnicity, national origin, neighborhood, or religion, unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the association is ongoing and currently relevant to a specific future risk of violence.

(F)Other factors which have been documented to be subject to bias, including, but not limited to, a parole candidates prior status as a victim or alleged victim of crime, verbal or nonverbal communication, tone of voice, volume of speech, facial expressions, body language, eye contact, or the candidates ability to articulate complex or abstract concepts.

(2)After July 30, 2001, any decision of the parole panel finding an inmate incarcerated person suitable for parole shall become final within 120 days of the date of the hearing. During that period, the board may review the panels decision. The panels decision shall become final pursuant to this subdivision unless the board finds that the panel made an error of law, or that the panels decision was based on an error of fact, or that new information should be presented to the board, any of which when corrected or considered by the board has a substantial likelihood of resulting in a substantially different decision upon a rehearing. In making this determination, the board shall consult with the commissioners who conducted the parole consideration hearing.

(3)A decision of a panel shall not be disapproved and referred for rehearing except by a majority vote of the board, sitting en banc, following a public meeting.

(c)For the purpose of reviewing the suitability for parole of those inmates incarcerated persons eligible for parole under prior law at a date earlier than that calculated under Section 1170.2, the board shall appoint panels of at least two persons to meet annually with each inmate incarcerated person until the time the person is released pursuant to proceedings or reaches the expiration of his or her their term as calculated under Section 1170.2.

(d)It is the intent of the Legislature that, during times when there is no backlog of inmates incarcerated persons awaiting parole hearings, life parole consideration hearings, or life rescission hearings, hearings will be conducted by a panel of three or more members, the majority of whom shall be commissioners. The board shall report monthly on the number of cases where an inmate incarcerated person has not received a completed initial or subsequent parole consideration hearing within 30 days of the hearing date required by subdivision (a) of Section 3041.5 or paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 3041.5, unless the inmate incarcerated person has waived the right to those timeframes. That report shall be considered the backlog of cases for purposes of this section, and shall include information on the progress toward eliminating the backlog, and on the number of inmates incarcerated persons who have waived their right to the above timeframes. The report shall be made public at a regularly scheduled meeting of the board and a written report shall be made available to the public and transmitted to the Legislature quarterly.

(e)For purposes of this section, an en banc review by the board means a review conducted by a majority of commissioners holding office on the date the matter is heard by the board. An en banc review shall be conducted in compliance with the following:

(1)The commissioners conducting the review shall consider the entire record of the hearing that resulted in the tie vote.

(2)The review shall be limited to the record of the hearing. The record shall consist of the transcript or audiotape of the hearing, written or electronically recorded statements actually considered by the panel that produced the tie vote, and any other material actually considered by the panel. New evidence or comments shall not be considered in the en banc proceeding.

(3)The board shall separately state reasons for its decision to grant or deny parole.

(4)A commissioner who was involved in the tie vote shall be recused from consideration of the matter in the en banc review.

SECTION 1.Section 21080.09 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:21080.09.(a)For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:(1)Public higher education has the same meaning as specified in Section 66010 of the Education Code.(2)Long range development plan means a physical development and land use plan to meet the academic and institutional objectives for a particular campus or medical center of public higher education.(b)The selection of a location for a particular campus and the approval of a long range development plan are subject to this division and require the preparation of an environmental impact report. Environmental effects relating to changes in enrollment levels shall be considered for each campus or medical center of public higher education in the environmental impact report prepared for the long range development plan for the campus or medical center.(c)The approval of a project on a particular campus or medical center of public higher education is subject to this division and may be addressed, subject to the other provisions of this division, in a tiered environmental analysis based upon a long range development plan environmental impact report.(d)Compliance with this section satisfies the obligations of public higher education pursuant to this division to consider the environmental impact of academic and enrollment plans as they affect campuses or medical centers, provided that the plans shall become effective for a campus or medical center only after the environmental effects of those plans have been analyzed as required by this division in a long range development plan environmental impact report or tiered analysis based upon that environmental impact report for that campus or medical center, and addressed as required by this division.

Date	Status
Apr 26, 2022	April 26 set for second hearing canceled at the request of author.
Apr 14, 2022	Set for hearing April 26.
Apr 13, 2022	April 19 set for first hearing canceled at the request of author.
Mar 31, 2022	Set for hearing April 19.
Mar 23, 2022	Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.
Mar 10, 2022	From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.
Feb 7, 2022	Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
Feb 2, 2022	Referred to Com. on RLS.
Jan 25, 2022	From printer. May be acted upon on or after February 24.
Jan 24, 2022	Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

Authors shown for version:
Amended Senate (3/10/2022)