Sex offenders: punishment: parole.

(1) Existing law creates the Sex Offender Management Board, within the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, empowered to address any issues, concerns, and problems related to the community management of adult sex offenders, including the main objective of the board to achieve safer communities by reducing victimization. The board is required, on or before July 1, 2011, to develop and update standards for certification of sex offender management professionals. This bill would give board members immunity from liability for their good faith conduct. The bill would provide that any person who knowingly provides false information in connection with an application for certification as a sex offender management professional would be subject to a civil penalty of up to $1,500, in addition to any other remedy available to the board, and would allow any public prosecutor to bring an action for a civil penalty in the name of the people of the State of California. The bill would also immunize certified sex offender management professionals and other specified professionals, as provided, from civil liability for any criminal acts committed by persons on parole, probation, or judicial commitment status who receive supervision or treatment. (2) Existing law requires every person who is required to register as a sex offender to be subject to assessment with the State-Authorized Risk Assessment Tool for Sex Offenders (SARATSO) and specifies that the SARATSO for adult males shall be the STATIC-99 risk assessment scale. Existing law establishes the SARATSO Review Committee, and requires the committee, on or before January 1, 2008, to determine whether the STATIC-99 should be supplemented with an actuarial instrument that measures dynamic risk factors or whether the STATIC-99 should be replaced with a different tool. Existing law requires the committee, on or before January 1, 2012, to select an actuarial instrument that measures dynamic risk factors and an actuarial instrument that measures the risk of future sexual violence. This bill would instead require the committee to determine whether the STATIC-99 should be supplemented with an empirically derived instrument, and would require the committee to select an empirically derived instrument that measures dynamic risk factors and an empirically derived instrument that measures risk of future violence. (3) The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a state body be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend. This bill would exempt the board from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act for purposes of discussing matters pertaining to the application of a sex offender treatment provider for certification, including review of an applicant's qualifications for certification. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations. (4) This bill would make clarifying and conforming changes.