Asm. Reggie Jones-Sawyer

This measure would name the public street, circle, and plaza at 914 and 915 Capitol Mall in the City of Sacramento as the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Circle and Plaza. The measure would request the Department of General Services to determine the cost of erecting the appropriate signage commemorating this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources, to cover that cost to erect that signage.

Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and charges it with certain duties and powers, including, among other things, the operation of prisons and other specified institutions. This bill would require the department to establish a Peace Officer Peer Support Labor Management Committee tasked with crafting, updating, and monitoring the implementation of a standardized statewide peace officer policy for the department's peer support program to provide substantive assistance to the peace officers employed by the department. The bill would require the committee to be composed of an equal number of representatives of the employer and peace officer employees, and would require the members of the committee to be selected and hold their first meeting on or before July 1, 2020. The bill would require the policy to address, among other things, the selection process and training for peer support team members, and guidelines for the types of communication that would remain confidential within the peer support program. The bill would require the policy to be fully implemented by January 1, 2022. The bill would require the department to submit, beginning July 1, 2020, an annual report to the Legislature that contains data pertaining to the utilization rates of the peace officer peer support program statewide.

Existing law requires the parties to a proceeding in which child support is at issue to disclose whether a party is currently receiving, or intends to apply for, assistance under the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program for the maintenance of the child. This bill would instead require the parties to disclose whether a party is currently receiving, or currently applying for, that assistance. Existing law requires, as a condition of eligibility for benefits under certain public assistance programs, including the CalWORKs and Medi-Cal programs, that applicants or recipients assign to the county any rights they may have to child support, as specified. Existing law delegates to the Department of Child Support Services and local child support agencies the responsibility for collecting and enforcing child support obligations, including child support delinquencies, as defined. Existing law sets the interest accrual rate on the principal amount of a money judgment that remains unsatisfied at 10%, and permits the Legislature to change that interest rate, if the change is applied prospectively. This bill would instead prohibit the department and local child support agencies from collecting interest that accrues on or after January 1, 2022, on the principal amount of child support that has been assigned as described above. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 17500 of the Family Code proposed by SB 337 to be operative only if this bill and SB 337 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

The Healthy Start Support Services for Children Act requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to award grants to local educational agencies or consortia to fund programs in qualifying schools that provide support services, which include case-managed health, mental health, social, and academic support services, to eligible pupils and their families. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would increase in-school support services to pupils in order to break down barriers to academic success. The bill would enact the School-Based Pupil Support Services Program Act, under which grants would be awarded by the State Department of Education to local educational agencies (LEAs) , as defined, or consortia of LEAs. The bill would specify that recipient LEAs and consortia would provide $1 of matching funds for each $4 of grant funds received. The bill would authorize 2 types of grants: planning grants and operational grants. The bill would require planning grants to be used by LEAs, on behalf of qualified schools, as defined, for planning and coordination activities relating to specified support services. The bill would require operational grants to be used by qualifying schools sponsored by LEAs or by consortia of LEAs for, among other purposes, increasing the presence of school health professionals, as defined, at schoolsites and providing programs that prevent and reduce substance abuse among pupils. The bill would require the source of the state funding for the grants awarded under the program to be an appropriation from the Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention and Treatment Account established pursuant to the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (Proposition 64, as approved by the voters at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election) . The appropriation would be made to the State Department of Health Care Services, for transfer to the State Department of Education, in accordance with a determination that expenditure of these funds for purposes of this bill would be authorized, as specified. The bill would place an unspecified limit on the amount and duration of the grants. The bill would require each recipient of a grant under the program to annually report specified data to the State Department of Education. The bill would also require the State Department of Education to provide the Legislature with, and to make publicly available, a report detailing specified budget information and data measuring outcomes relating to the program.

Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to operate the state prison system. Existing law establishes various rehabilitation programs for inmates in the state prison, including literacy, education, and vocational training programs. Existing law requires the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board to regularly examine these programs and to annually report to the Governor and the Legislature on specified findings, including the effectiveness of treatment efforts and recommendations with respect to rehabilitation and treatment programs. This bill would, in response to the State Auditor's recommendations as contained in the 2019 report titled "Several Poor Administrative Practices Have Hindered Reductions in Recidivism and Denied Inmates Access to In‑Prison Rehabilitation Programs," require the department to contract with an external researcher to analyze the effectiveness of its rehabilitation programs, as provided, and to submit a report to the Legislature by July 1, 2024. The bill would require the report to contain specified information, including a recidivism analysis that includes the number of sanctions or other adverse actions taken against rehabilitation program vendors in the previous calendar year and data on inmates receiving rehabilitation programs in their areas of expressed need, as well as performance targets, a corrective action plan, and the identification of programs that should be modified or eliminated based on their effectiveness. The bill would, if the external research is unable to provide recidivism analysis on specified data elements, require the department to, independently or by separate contract, provide data or analysis on those elements in a separate report, as specified.

Existing law requires or authorizes a court to impose various fines, fees, and assessments on criminal defendants, including fines assessed as a penalty for a crime, restitution fines, and fees and assessments for the support and maintenance of the courts, as specified. This bill would require a court imposing a fine, fee, or assessment related to a criminal or juvenile proceeding involving a misdemeanor or a felony to make a finding, as specified, that the defendant or minor has the ability to pay, as defined. The bill would require that a defendant or minor be presumed to not have the ability to pay if the defendant or minor is homeless, lives in a shelter, or lives in a transitional living facility, receives need-based public assistance, is very low income, or is sentenced to state prison for an indeterminate term or a term of life without the possibility of parole. The bill would also specify factors establishing inability to pay, as specified.

This measure would recognize September 2020 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month and encourage the Legislature to appropriate funds for research, treatment, and monitoring of sickle cell disease, and for related education and outreach.

This measure would urge specified state departments and the Attorney General to use their authority to ensure that health care service plans and health insurers subject to their authority comply with the federal Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.