Existing law provides for various employment programs to assist formerly incarcerated individuals in finding and retaining employment, including the Pre-Release Construction Trades Certificate Program administered by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Prison to Employment Program administered by the California Workforce Development Board. Existing law establishes the California Workforce Development Board as the body responsible for assisting the Governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system and the alignment of the education and workforce investment systems to the needs of the 21st century economy and workforce. This bill would, by January 1, 2028, require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in partnership with the Department of Industrial Relations, to establish the Preapprenticeship Pathways to Employment Pilot Program. The bill would, until January 1, 2032, provide incarcerated individuals access to preapprenticeship training in the skilled construction and building trades. The bill would require the program to provide, among other things, instruction based on the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum and content coordinated with joint apprenticeship training committees. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement the program at one men's facility and one women's facility. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, beginning January 1, 2029, to annually report certain data regarding participation in the program to the Legislature.
Existing law requires each state and local agency that employs peace officers to annually report to the Attorney General specified data on all stops conducted by that agency's peace officers for the preceding calendar year. Existing law defines "stop" for purposes of these provisions to mean any detention by a peace officer of a person or any peace officer interaction with a person in which the peace officer conducts a search of the person's body or property in the person's possession or control. Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board (RIPA) for the purpose of eliminating racial and identity profiling and improving diversity and racial and identity sensitivity in law enforcement. Existing law requires RIPA to include various members, including 2 representatives of human or civil rights tax-exempt organizations, 2 representatives of community organizations, and 2 religious clergy members, as specified. Existing law authorizes the Governor, President pro Tempore of the Senate, and Speaker of the Assembly to each prescribe up to 2 other members to membership of RIPA. This bill would require RIPA to include in its membership the president of the California District Attorneys Association, or their designee. Existing law requires RIPA to issue a report annually that provides RIPA's analysis of, among other things, the reported stop data described above. Existing law also requires the report to provide detailed findings on the past and current status of racial identity profiling and to make policy recommendations for eliminating racial and identity profiling, as specified. This bill would authorize any member of RIPA to cause a dissenting opinion to be included in the report, as specified. The bill would additionally authorize RIPA to include a response to a dissenting opinion in its report.
Existing law requires prisoners sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison to serve time on parole or community supervision after their release from prison. Existing law authorizes courts to suspend the imposition or execution of punishments in specified criminal cases and instead enforce terms of probation or mandatory supervision. Existing law allows agencies responsible for supervision to determine appropriate responses to alleged violations, which can include, among other things, a one to 10 consecutive day period of flash incarceration. This bill would prohibit a person on any of those forms of supervision from being arrested, detained, or incarcerated for a technical violation of supervision, as defined, unless the person on supervision has had their supervision revoked by a judge after a revocation petition has been filed, except as specified. The bill would define a technical violation as any conduct in violation of a person's conditions of supervision that is not a new misdemeanor or felony. The bill would require a supervision agent to provide a person accused of a technical violation with a written summary of the technical violations alleged against them. The bill would prohibit the use of flash incarceration, and would make conforming changes. The bill would limit confinement pursuant to a revocation of supervision for a technical violation to no more than 7 days for the first revocation, 15 days for the 2nd revocation, and 30 days for the 3rd or subsequent revocation. By increasing duties on local supervision agents, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to establish and keep updated a classroom-based continuing training course that includes instructor-led active learning, such as scenario-based training, relating to behavioral health and law enforcement interaction with persons with mental illness, intellectual disability, and substance use disorders. Existing law requires the commission to make available the course to each law enforcement officer with a rank of supervisor or below and who is assigned to patrol duties or to supervise officers who are assigned to patrol duties. This bill would authorize the commission to partner with local departments of behavioral health, community-based organizations, or nonprofit organizations to establish and keep updated this classroom-based continuing training course. The bill would require a law enforcement officer with a rank of supervisor or below and who is assigned to patrol duties or to supervise officers who are assigned to patrol duties to complete the course. By imposing additional training costs on local law enforcement agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law grants the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation authority to operate the state prison system and gives the department jurisdiction over various state prisons and other institutions. Existing law requires the department to make college programs available at every state prison and requires that these programs be provided by the California Community Colleges, the California State University, or the University of California, or other accredited, nonprofit colleges or universities. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2028, and annually thereafter, to report to the Legislature information related to the amount of space available for academic and vocational education, including the amount of the deficit or surplus of space at each prison.
Existing law establishes the California Conservation Corps in the Natural Resources Agency and requires the corps to implement and administer the conservation corps program. Existing law authorizes the Director of the California Conservation Corps to establish various training and educational program, including, among others, the Education and Employment Reentry Program, within the corps, to provide education and training to formerly incarcerated individuals who successfully served on a California Conservation Camp program crew. This bill would require the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to jointly evaluate the Ventura Training Center and would require the evaluation to include specified components, including, among others, an evaluation of ways to increase the rate of graduated trainees entering the firefighter workforce. The bill would require the departments to submit a report describing the evaluation to certain legislative committees by January 1, 2026, and would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2030. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of community care facilities, including foster family homes and foster family agencies, by the State Department of Social Services. Existing law requires a criminal record check of applicants for a license, special permit, or certificate of approval for a foster family home or certified family home, and other persons, including nonclients who reside in those homes and staff and employees. Existing law requires the department to check the child abuse and neglect registry of a different state for a licensee of a community care facility who has lived in another state in the preceding 5 years. Existing law generally makes violations of these requirements a crime. This bill would authorize a licensee of a community care facility to approve an individual to care for children before the completion of another state's child abuse and neglect registry check if certain specified conditions are met, including that the community care facility has submitted a request for the out-of-state abuse and neglect registry check to the department. The bill would require a licensee to remove an applicant from the community care facility immediately upon receipt of information that would disqualify the applicant from approval and notify the department of the removal within 3 business days. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law authorizes the court to issue a protective order restraining a defendant from any contact with the victim if the defendant has been charged with a crime involving domestic violence or a sex offense. This bill would require the court, if that defendant is convicted of that crime and is sentenced to incarceration in the state prison, to, at the time of sentencing, order that upon the defendant's release from prison, the defendant be served with a temporary criminal protective order protecting the same identified victim or victims from the original protective order. The bill would require this order to last for no more than 180 days. By authorizing the issuance of protective orders in certain circumstances and the extension of certain protective orders, a violation of which is punishable as a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Elderly Parole Program for the purpose of reviewing the parole suitability of inmates who are 50 years of age or older and who have served a minimum of 20 years of continuous incarceration on their sentence. Existing law requires the Board of Parole Hearings, when considering the release of qualifying inmates, to give special consideration to whether certain criteria have reduced the elderly inmate's risk for future violence. Existing law excludes various persons from these provisions, including persons sentenced pursuant to existing sentencing provisions commonly known as the three strikes law. Under an existing court order, although statutorily excluded, an individual may be eligible for parole under the Elderly Parole Program when they are 60 years of age or older and have been continuously incarcerated for at least 25 years. This bill would instead specify that persons required to register as sexual offenders, habitual sexual offenders, and persons convicted of various sexual offenses, including rape or sodomy, are not suitable for parole under the Elderly Parole Program until the person is 60 years of age or older and has served a minimum of 25 years of continuous incarceration on their current sentence.
Existing law creates specified programs that employ inmates, including the joint venture program, which is established by the Secretary of Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation within state prisons that allows a public entity, nonprofit or for-profit entity, organization, or business to employ inmates confined in the state prison system for the purpose of producing goods or services. Existing law also establishes the Prison Industry Authority within the department for the purpose of developing and operating industrial, agricultural, and service enterprises employing prisoners in institutions under the jurisdiction of the department and for the purpose of creating and maintaining working conditions within the enterprises to ensure prisoners employed have the opportunity to work productively, to earn funds, and to acquire or improve effective work habits and occupational skills. Existing law requires, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Office of Small Business Advocate within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to establish the California Employee Ownership Hub that would, among other things, work with all California state agencies whose regulations and programs affect employee-owned companies, and businesses with the potential to become employee owned, to enhance opportunities and reduce barriers. Existing law, the Cooperative Corporation Law, governs the organization and operation of cooperatives, including, among others, worker cooperatives. Existing law defines a worker cooperative as a corporation formed under the Cooperative Corporation Law that includes a class of worker-members who are natural persons whose patronage consists of labor contributed to or other work performed for the corporation. Existing law requires specified information to be included in the articles of incorporation or bylaws, including, among other things, the apportionment and distribution of net earnings and losses of a worker cooperative. Existing law makes the violation of specified provisions under the Cooperative Corporation Law a crime. This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish the Inmate Cooperative Program to facilitate operations of inmate worker cooperatives within state prison facilities. The bill would authorize a group of inmates who seek to establish a worker cooperative to apply to the program by submitting an application to the warden of the facility. The bill would require the warden to approve an application only if the applicant, or a cooperative community partner acting on their behalf, submits a plan of operation to the warden containing specified information, including, among other things, the cooperative's draft bylaws, which describe the cooperative's mission, the cooperative's internal governance structure, an initial management structure, and compensation structure. The bill would define a cooperative community partner as a nonprofit organization, cooperative association, cooperative corporation, or individual that supports the inmates with the establishment, operation, and governance of certified inmate cooperatives. This bill would require a group of inmates seeking to form a worker cooperative to incorporate as a worker cooperative following the approval of an application by the warden. The bill would require the Inmate Cooperative Program to certify the worker cooperative following approval of an application by the warden and incorporation of the cooperative. The bill would require the department to enter into a contract with the cooperative to outline the terms of operation, responsibilities, and compliance requirements. The bill would require a certified cooperative, as a condition to operate in a state prison facility, to write into their bylaws that their cooperative community partner is required to deduct 40% from each inmate's gross wages and deposit the wages into a specified account. The bill would authorize a certified cooperative to engage in the production of goods, agricultural products, or services for the cooperative's use and sale. This bill would require the California Employee Ownership Hub to choose a cooperative institution, which would, among other things, assist in the selection of a financial institution that would steward and manage an account that would be used to, among other things, create economic opportunities for survivors of crime and other persons impacted by their interactions with the criminal justice system with grants for specified purposes. The bill would define a cooperative institution as a nongovernmental nonprofit organization, cooperative association, or similar entity that is dedicated to supporting, overseeing, and promoting cooperative enterprises. The bill would require the financial institution to submit an annual report to the Governor detailing the account's activities, resource allocations, and measurable outcomes of funded initiatives. This bill would also require the department to deduct from inmate wages mandatory deductions for restitution orders and fines, among other things. The bill would require the department to provide certified cooperatives with access to necessary equipment, materials, and resources to support their operations, with no obligation for the department to fund these resources. The bill would prohibit an employee of the department from serving as a member, officer, or board member of any cooperative established under the Inmate Cooperative Program or from having any direct or indirect financial interest in the cooperative or its operations.
