Juveniles: communications with children.

Existing law states the policy of the state that all youth confined in a facility of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice have the right to maintain frequent and continuing contact with parents, guardians, siblings, children, and extended family members through visits, telephone calls, and mail. This bill would expand this right to include contact with the other parent of a child, and the child's caregiver, social worker, teacher, physician, and other service providers involved in the upbringing and caregiving of the child. The bill also would require local juvenile detention facilities to consider the well-being of the children of parents who are in the custody of those facilities, and for visitation policies to provide opportunities for meaningful contact between incarcerated parents and children. The bill would provide that a juvenile who is a parent, who is involved in caring for his or her child, and who is authorized for telephone communication, shall be permitted to place telephone calls to his or her child, and to the child's other parent, caregiver, social worker, teacher, physician, other service providers for the child, and any other individuals who are involved in the upbringing and caregiving of the child, within the restriction policy for telephone use at the local juvenile detention facility. By imposing new and additional duties on local juvenile detention facilities, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides that a ward confined in a facility of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities, is encouraged to communicate with family members, clergy, and others, and to participate in programs that will facilitate his or her education, rehabilitation, and accountability to victims, and that may help the ward become a law-abiding and productive member of society. This bill would, if the ward has a child and except as specified, authorize the ward to communicate, both over the telephone and in writing, with specified persons, including the ward's child, in order to aid in the attachment and involvement of the ward in his or her child's life, to increase the ward's ability to parent the child, and to reduce the detrimental impact on the ward's child as a result of having an incarcerated parent. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.