The California Constitution permits private property to be taken or damaged for public use only when just compensation has first been paid to, or into court for, the owner of that property. The Eminent Domain Law provides that a public entity may exercise the power of eminent domain only if it has adopted a resolution of necessity, as specified.

This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Anthony Portantino, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

SB 850 (Umberg) - Courts: notification system

Bill Summary:

SB 850 would require the Judicial Council of California (JCC) to develop and make available to each county trial court a reminder program that allows county courts to send a text message to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances, as specified.

Fiscal Impact:

The JCC estimates one-time and ongoing annual costs ranging from $3.2 million to $4.5 million in Fiscal Years 2024-25 – 2026-27 and $1.2 million ongoing thereafter to make information technology investments and for additional related staffing resources (General Fund).

Background:

This bill requires JCC to develop and make available to each county court a court reminder program that allows the court to send a text message to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances including arraignment. The purpose of the program is to reduce costs associated with failure to appears, improve the efficiency of the courts, reduce defendants who fail to appear, and to reduce those who are confined in county jail due to a failure to appear.

The bill sets forth the requirements of the program including providing texts one week, prior, three days prior, and on the day of the hearing. The program should also be able to provide additional information concerning scheduled court appearances including the location, available transportation, and the procedure for those who cannot attend. There should be a website for a person to be available to request text reminders. The bill also requires each law enforcement agency to collect the cell phone number of an accused upon booking and transmit it to the court.

This bill requires the JCC to set up a uniform reporting mechanism for specified information. It requires JCC to annually submit a report to the Legislature starting in July 2025. The report shall contain the data collected and it should be disaggregated by county. The bill also requires the JCC to set up an implementation oversight committee to oversee the design and implementation of the reminder system. It shall consist of five to ten experts and include local or national experts on developing evidence-based court reminder programs.

Proposed Law:

• Provides that the JCC shall develop and make available to each county court a court reminder program that allows the county court to send a text message to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances.
• Provides that the purposes of the program shall include the following:
  • Reducing costs associated with defendants who fail to appear for a scheduled court appearance.
  • Improving the efficiency of courts in this state.
  • Reminding defendants to appear at each scheduled court appearances.
  • Reducing the number of defendants who are confined in a county jail due solely to the defendant’s failure to appear for a scheduled court appearance.
    
• Provides that the program shall do the following:
  • Be available to each county at no cost.
  • Comply with applicable state and federal laws requiring the consent of an individual before sending a reminder by text message.
  • Provide text message reminder at least one week prior, three days, prior and on the day of the hearing, for each court appearance of a defendant who has access to a device with the technological capability of receiving text messages and provides the court administrator with an operational telephone number for the device.
  • Include the technological capability to provide additional information to defendants concerning scheduled court appearances, including the location of the court appearance, available transportation options, and procedures for defendants who are unable to attend court appearances.
  • Provide one or more publicly available internet websites through which defendants may request text reminders.
  • Make reminders available in the state’s threshold languages.
  • Require county courts to provide a text message reminder to a person accused of a criminal offense about their arraignment.
    
• Provides that each law enforcement agency shall collect the cell phone number of a person accused of a criminal offense upon citation or booking and transmit it to the county court in their jurisdiction.
• Provides that all county courts shall participate in the court reminder program.
• Provides that all the records generated under this program not be used for any purpose other than for court date reminders without the defendant’s consent, unless that information is relevant evidence that is admissible, as specified.
• Requires the JCC to create a uniform mechanism to have the courts report the following information:
  • The number of defendants with scheduled court appearances who have access to a device with the technological capability of receiving text message and provide the court administrator with an operational telephone number for the device.
  • Number of text message reminders sent.
  • Number of defendants with scheduled court appearances who lack access to devices with technological capability of receiving text messages.
  • Number of defendants who fail to appear at scheduled court appearances after being sent one or more text reminders.
    
• Requires the JCC to annually report data to the Legislature, disaggregated by county.
• Provides that the JCC shall convene an implementation oversight committee to oversee the design and implementation of the statewide court reminder system.
• Provides that the implementation oversight committee shall be made up of 5 to 10 members chosen by JCC and shall include experts on developing evidence-based court reminder programs and shall be responsible for all of the following:
  • Advising on the design of the court reminder system.
  • Researching best practices for developing a court reminder system.
  • Providing consultation on implementation and priorities for technical assistance.
  • Identifying barriers to implementation and suggesting solutions to address those barriers.
    
• Provides that for the purposes of this section, the term “threshold languages” means a language identified as the primary language, as indicated on the Medi-Cal Eligibility Data System, of 3,000 beneficiaries or 5 percent of the beneficiary population, whichever is lower, in an identified geographic area.

Related Legislation:

SB 255 (Umberg, 2023) is identical to this bill. SB 255 was held on the Suspense File in this committee.

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SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY

Senator Aisha Wahab, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Bill No: SB 850 Hearing Date: January 9, 2024

Subject: Courts: notification system

HISTORY

Source: La Defensa

Prior Legislation: SB 255 (Umberg), held in Senate Appropriations in 2023

Support: Unknown

Opposition: None known

PURPOSE

The purpose of this bill is to require the Judicial Council to develop and make available to each county court a court reminder program that allows the county court to send a text message to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances.

Existing law generally vests the judicial power of the state in the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and superior courts, and establishes the Judicial Council to, among other things, adopt rules of court and perform functions prescribed by statute. (California Constitution Article VI, Sec. 1 et seq.)

This bill provides that the Judicial Council shall develop and make available to each county court a court reminder program that allows the county court to send a text message to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances.

This bill provides that the purposes of the program shall include the following:

• Reducing costs associated with defendants who fail to appear for a scheduled court appearance.
• Improving the efficiency of courts in this state.
• Reminding defendants to appear at each scheduled court appearances.
• Reducing the number of defendants who are confined in a county jail due solely to the defendant’s failure to appear for a scheduled court appearance.

This bill provides that the program shall do the following:

• Be available to each county at no cost.
• Comply with applicable state and federal laws requiring the consent of an individual before sending a reminder by text message.
• Provide text message reminder at least one week prior, three days, prior and on the day of the hearing, for each court appearance of a defendant who has access to a device with the technological capability of receiving text messages and provides the court administrator with an operational telephone number for the device.
• Include the technological capability to provide additional information to defendants concerning scheduled court appearances, including the location of the court appearance, available transportation options, and procedures for defendants who are unable to attend court appearances.
• Provide one or more publicly available internet websites through which defendants may request text reminders.
• Make reminders available in the state’s threshold languages.
• Require county courts to provide a text message reminder to a person accused of a criminal offense about their arraignment.

This bill provides that each law enforcement agency shall collect the cell phone number of a person accused of a criminal offense upon citation or booking and transmit it to the county court in their jurisdiction.

This bill provides that all county courts shall participate in the court reminder program.

This bill provides that all the records generated under this program shall not be used for any other purpose.

This bill requires the Judicial Council shall create a uniform mechanism to have the courts report the following information:

• The number of defendants with scheduled court appearances who have access to a device with the technological capability of receiving text message and provide the court administrator with an operational telephone number for the device.
• Number of text message reminders sent.
• Number of defendants with scheduled court appearances who lack access to devices with technological capability of receiving text messages.
• Number of defendants who fail to appear at scheduled court appearances after being sent one or more text reminders.

This bill requires the Judicial Council to annually report data to the Legislature, disaggregated by county.

This bill provides that the Judicial Council shall convene an implementation oversight committee to oversee the design and implementation of the statewide court reminder system.

This bill provides that the implementation oversight committee shall be made up of 5 to 10 members chosen by Judicial Council and shall include experts on developing evidence-based court reminder programs and shall be responsible for all of the following:

• Advising on the design of the court reminder system.
• Researching best practices for developing a court reminder system.
• Providing consultation on implementation and priorities for technical assistance.
• Identifying barriers to implementation and suggesting solutions to address those barriers.

This bill provides that for the purposes of this section, the term “threshold languages” means a language identified as the primary language, as indicated on the Medi-Cal Eligibility Data System, of 3,000 beneficiaries or 5 percent of the beneficiary population, whichever is lower, in an identified geographic area.

COMMENTS

1. Need for This Bill

According to the author:

[This bill] requires the Judicial Council to develop and make a reminder program available to each county court to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances via text message and require county courts to participate. Failure to appear in court can result in the immediate revocation of pretrial release, bail, and trigger warrants for arrest. The lack of reminders for court hearings lead to an increase in missed court appearances, most of which are unintentional. Missed hearings subsequently lead to unnecessary costs for the state due to an increased workload for judges, law enforcement, and prosecutors, and other costs associated with rescheduling court hearings. Currently, court notification programs vary wildly across the state. Studies have shown that text reminders can create a significant increase in appearance rates. Therefore, SB 255 will reduce missed court hearings and increase court efficiency by creating a statewide court system that will notify defendants of their scheduled court appearances

2. Creation of a statewide court notification system

This bill requires Judicial Council to develop and make available to each county court a court reminder program that allows the court to send a text message to notify defendants of scheduled court appearances including arraignment. The purpose of the program is to reduce costs associated with failure to appears, improve the efficiency of the courts, reduce defendants who fail to appear, and to reduce those who are confined in county jail due to a failure to appear.

The bill sets forth the requirements of the program including providing texts one week, prior, three days prior, and on the day of the hearing. The program should also be able to provide additional information concerning scheduled court appearances including the location, available transportation, and the procedure for those who cannot attend. There should be a website for a person to be available to request text reminders. The bill also requires each law enforcement agency to collect the cell phone number of an accused upon booking and transmit it to the court.

According to Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research:

Court date notification systems (also known as court date reminder systems) are shown to be an effective tool in increasing court appearance rates. The use of notifications to remind people of appointments, address common misperceptions about attending court, and encourage problem solving around barriers to timely appearance (e.g., schedule conflicts, transportation, childcare)—including offering assistance where needed—can make a critical difference in court appearance rates. In addition to reminding people of an upcoming court date, notifications can be used to advise people of a missed court date so they can resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Do people currently get reminders from their attorney, probation, or bail agents?

How often do people failure to appear because the person forgot about the court date as opposed to they had transportation issues, childcare issues, etc. or just chose not to come?

The bill requires a cell phone to be taken at booking but also requires a website be created to sign up for reminders, so is it contemplated the reminders are automatic or a person has to opt in? Often the person may give a phone number that is not theirs, it is a friend or family member’s, what if in that case they don’t want the notification?

If the notification fails on the court’s end or somehow the person does not get the notice, they lost their phone, could not pay for the monthly minutes, share a phone with someone, and the person signed up for notices, and they fail to appear, do they have some reason to argue they were relying on the notice?

3. Reporting

This bill requires the Judicial Council to set up a uniform reporting mechanism for specified information. It requires Judicial Council to annually submit a report to the Legislature starting in July 2025. The report shall contain the data collected and it should be disaggregated by county.

4. Oversight Committee

The bill also requires the Judicial Council to set up an implementation oversight committee to oversee the design and implementation of the reminder system. It shall consist of five to ten experts and include local or national experts on developing evidence-based court reminder programs.

If the oversight committee is to oversee the implementation, is this intended to be a short term oversight committee? Should the bill state when it should be convened and for how long or how often it should meet?

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