Today's Law As Amended


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AB-2534 Survivor Support and Harm Prevention Pilot Program Act.(2021-2022)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Currently, programs for survivors of crime, often referred to as victims assistance programs, are operated through the district attorney’s office. These services come with strings attached as prosecutors use them as a tool to encourage survivors to cooperate in the investigation and the prosecution.
(b) Requiring the coupling of survivor services with law enforcement entities poses multiple barriers for survivors of crime struggling to access already limited services.
(c) It is well documented that the current model to provide services to survivors is not working. Many survivors are unaware that these services currently exist and if they are aware of them, they are still not accessing them as survivors may be apprehensive to engage with law enforcement.
(d) Survivors should not have to choose between their needs and fears when seeking survivor support services. Survivor support services must be available throughout the criminal legal process to all survivors of crime, regardless of whether or not they are willing to participate in a process that may criminalize them or their loved ones.

SEC. 2.

 Part 8 (commencing with Section 5965) is added to Division 5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:

PART 8. Survivor Support and Harm Prevention Pilot Program Act

5965.
 For purposes of this part, the following definitions apply:
(a) “Agency” means the California Health and Human Services Agency.
(b) “Community-based organization” means a public or nonprofit organization, or organization fiscally sponsored by a nonprofit, that can demonstrate its ability to effectively provide supportive services within the community to people who have suffered trauma or otherwise need assistance, without relying on law enforcement or replicating law enforcement functions, and which has a demonstrated involvement with the identified communities to be served.
(c) “Disconnected” means having no relationship with respect to administration, staffing, or funding, or otherwise cooperating with, collaborating with, or reporting to, any carceral institution in any situation, except when the program or service involved is bound to engage in such cooperation or reporting by existing federal, state, or local law.
(d) “Law enforcement agency” includes, but is not limited to, any police department, sheriff’s department, district attorney or other prosecutorial agency, county probation department, transit agency police department, school district police department, private security agency, including mall security, highway patrol, police department of any campus of the University of California, the California State University, or a community college, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Justice, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and federal law enforcement agencies, such as the United States Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
(e) “Law enforcement officer” means an officer, deputy, employee, or agent of a law enforcement agency as described above.
(f) “Noncarceral” means harm-reduction based, fully voluntary, accessible, culturally appropriate, community-based responses fully disconnected from the criminal legal system in terms of surveillance, administration, staffing, funding, and consequences of any kind from the criminal legal system apparatus, including, but not limited to, law enforcement, criminal courts, prosecution, mandated treatment, programming, probation departments, family separation, child welfare services, and community supervision.
(g) “Noncarceral approach to safety” means that the program or service is established or provided in a manner that is disconnected from carceral institutions, including law enforcement, criminal courts, prosecution, probation, child welfare services, or immigration enforcement.
(h) “Noncoercive” means not using pressure, threats, including, but not limited to, threats of arrest, supervision, deportation, or incarceration, or force, including, but not limited to, arrest, supervision, or incarceration, to achieve compliance. A program is also noncoercive if it does not premise participation or the receipt of benefits or funding upon cooperation with law enforcement.
(i) “Nonpunitive” means voluntary, harm reduction and evidence based, accessible, quality, and culturally competent, not relying on surveillance or inflicting or aiming to inflict punishment, including, but not limited to, punishment through the criminal legal system, including arrest, supervision, or incarceration, child welfare system, including child removal, medical system, including mandated treatment or incarceration in a medical facility, or mandated social services.
(j) “Peer navigators” means persons who have personally experienced incarceration or criminalization, or who had an immediate family member incarcerated or convicted who can provide guidance on how to navigate the court system and access services.
(k) “Program” means the Survivor Support and Harm Prevention Pilot Program established by this part.
(l) “Stakeholder workgroup” means a group of interested parties convened by the agency pursuant to Section 5965.4 to oversee this program.
(m) “Survivor” means natural persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws, including those laws proscribing criminal abuse of power. A person may be considered a survivor regardless of whether the accused is identified, apprehended, prosecuted, or convicted and regardless of the familial relationship between the accused and the survivor. The term “survivor” also includes, when appropriate, the immediate family or dependents of the direct survivor and persons who have suffered harm in intervening to assist survivors in distress or to prevent victimization. The provisions contained herein shall be applicable to all, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, language, religion, nationality, political or other opinion, cultural beliefs or practices, property, birth or family status, ethnic or social origin, and disability.
5965.1.
 (a) The Survivor Support and Harm Prevention Pilot Program is hereby established, to be administered by the agency.
(b) The purpose of the program is funding noncarceral, nonpunitive, prevention-oriented, and therapeutic programs that support survivors of crime and otherwise support individuals who have experienced violence or trauma of any nature.
5965.2.
 The agency shall work with no more than five counties selected pursuant to the following requirements:
(a) The Counties of Los Angeles and Alameda shall be participating counties.
(b) (1) The agency shall publicly solicit applications from counties that are interested in hosting the pilot program.
(2) The agency shall prioritize counties that propose interventions that serve historically marginalized populations and that serve communities with a demonstrated need for noncarceral approaches to safety for the remaining participating counties.
5965.3.
 (a) Participating counties shall establish an Office of Survivor Support and Harm Reduction, a county agency that is independent of any law enforcement agency. The office shall be responsible for all of the following:
(1) Accepting walk-ins and self-referrals, and receiving referrals from courts, community-based organizations, schools, small businesses, public defender offices, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, health departments, social services, child welfare agencies, and other service providing agencies to support survivors of crime.
(2) Funding noncarceral, nonpunitive, prevention-oriented, and therapeutic programs that support survivors of crime.
(3) Coordinating, promoting, and implementing noncarceral approaches to safety for survivors of crime, specifically through services and programs provided by community-based providers, health departments, and nonlaw enforcement service agencies to survivors of crime who choose to seek those services.
(b) A county Office of Survivor Support and Harm Reduction may provide or contract with community-based organizations to provide any of the following services:
(1) Voluntary, noncoercive, and trauma-informed health services and healing supports for communities and individuals so that they can recover from exposure to violence, abuse, or harmful interactions with law enforcement.
(2) Housing support options, fully or partially funded, open to individuals who do not have a safe place to go, including individuals experiencing domestic or sexual abuse, individuals who have been victims of human trafficking, and individuals who have experienced housing discrimination due to being or having been a sex worker.
(3) Programming related to abuse interruption, intervention, prevention, and healing.
(4) Assessing the survivor’s needs related to housing, benefits, medical, psychosocial, legal, workforce, and other services, and providing voluntary referrals and assistance accessing them, as needed.
(5) (A) Connecting victims and survivors with services and support.
(B) In participating counties, when a law enforcement officer determines that there is a readily apparent victim of crime, the law enforcement officer shall advise that victim of crime how to receive services pursuant to this part. The officer shall advise the victim of crime that those services are unrelated to law enforcement. If the victim of crime consents, the law enforcement officer may provide the victim’s contact information to the office.
(6) Assisting survivors in obtaining stay-away orders to ensure the safety of all parties.
(7) Providing restorative and transformative justice through peer navigators.
(8) Dispatching cleanup assistance and providing cash grants to assist survivors of crime with cleanup costs and repairs to damaged property and infrastructure.
(c) Services and programs provided by a county Office of Survivor Support and Harm Reduction shall not do either of the following:
(1) Require or expect survivors to cooperate with law enforcement or court entities in order to access services.
(2) Require or include the use of police reports or any other law enforcement evidence in order for survivors to receive services.
(d) (1) A participating county shall solicit partnerships with community-based organizations to provide services to survivors pursuant to subdivision (b). This solicitation shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(A) Issuing a public notice and invitation to create a partnership to establish a program pursuant to this part.
(B) Inviting letters of intent from community-based organizations.
(C) Convening public meetings to hear questions, concerns, and suggestions from the community that would inform the development of the program.
(2) Any written outreach materials created to solicit partnerships with community-based organizations shall be translated in the county’s top five threshold languages.
(e) A participating county shall do all of the following:
(1) Ensure that programs and services funded by the county are provided through a noncarceral approach to safety and are accessible to all people, including those who have disabilities, are noncitizens, or are undocumented individuals, regardless of whether they pursue or choose to participate in the prosecution of the accused.
(2) Provide financial assistance totaling at least 90 percent of grant funds to qualifying community-based organizations.
(3) Refrain from using any funding for law enforcement agencies, including, but not limited to, sheriff and probation departments, for alternatives to incarceration. Counties shall not use law enforcement agencies to regrant funding to health agencies and community-based organizations.
(4) Inform survivors of available victims’ compensation programs.
5965.4.
 (a) (1) The agency shall convene a stakeholder workgroup to oversee the program. The stakeholder workgroup shall be made up of the following members to be chosen by the agency.
(A) Three survivors of crime from each of the five pilot counties.
(B) Three survivor service providers who provide services through a noncarceral approach to safety.
(C) One representative from each of the local jurisdiction’s county human services departments.
(D) One representative appointed by the California Health and Human Services Agency.
(2) The stakeholder workgroup representatives pursuant to this subdivision shall reflect the racial, religious, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, immigration status, and other diversities of the State of California, including representation for African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinx, Indigenous, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, women, youth, persons with disabilities, undocumented and formerly undocumented immigrants, and other groups that have been disproportionately disadvantaged by the criminal legal system.
(3) The stakeholder workgroup representatives shall not include law enforcement or current or former law enforcement officers or immediate family members of law enforcement officers.
(b) (1) The agency shall convene monthly meetings with the stakeholder workgroup. These meetings shall be accessible to all workgroup members, including, but not limited to, language accessibility, compliance with ADA requirements, technical accessibility, and location and travel accessibility. All workgroup meeting notes shall be made available to the public and posted on the agency’s internet website.
(2) The agency and the stakeholder workgroup shall discuss the responsibilities specified in subdivision (c) in the monthly meetings convened pursuant to paragraph (1).
(3) The agency shall post a yearly summary of the meetings required pursuant to paragraph (1) on its internet website.
(c) In addition to the other requirements of this section, the stakeholder workgroup shall be responsible for all of the following requirements:
(1) Providing best practices and program recommendations.
(2) Providing consultation on implementation and priorities for technical assistance.
(3) Identifying barriers to implementation and suggesting solutions to address those barriers.
(4) Collaboratively reviewing data and program outcomes.
(5) Advising on the design of the evaluation of the program.
(6) Assisting in drafting the agency’s reporting and overall policy recommendations pursuant to Section 5965.5.
(d) The agency shall compensate the stakeholder workgroup members at a rate of four dollars ($4) over the state minimum wage, at a minimum, for any time spent participating in the workgroup. Stakeholder workgroup members shall commit at least 10 hours per week to carry out their duties. The agency shall also compensate these individuals for costs incurred based on workgroup responsibilities and duties. These costs include, but are not limited to, costs associated with travel, meals, and caretaking responsibilities.
(e) Nothing within this part prohibits the agency or stakeholder workgroup members from inviting outside speakers to address the workgroup or from convening public meetings to hear testimony from survivors, especially from specific demographics, that would inform their work.
5965.5.
 (a) (1) The agency shall create a uniform mechanism for participating counties to collect and report data, to the agency, including, at minimum, the data described in this section. Participating counties shall provide data to the best of their abilities.
(2) The data collection pursuant to this section is required in order to have the information necessary to most effectively provide services and ensure community safety. The requirement of regular reporting will provide stakeholders and the public the transparency necessary for accountability.
(b) The agency shall ensure that the data collection and reporting done by participating counties pursuant to this section meets all of the following requirements:
(1) Contains all of the following information:
(A) Date of birth and age category.
(B) Race or ethnicity by the following categories:
(i) American Indian or Alaska Native.
(ii) Asian.
(iii) Black or African American.
(iv) Hispanic or Latinx.
(v) Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
(vi) White.
(vii) Other.
(viii) More than one race.
(ix) Decline to answer or unknown.
(C) Gender by the following categories:
(i) Male.
(ii) Female.
(iii) Transgender.
(iv) Gender queer.
(v) Questioning or unsure of gender identity.
(vi) Another gender identity.
(vii) Decline to answer or unknown.
(D) Sexual orientation by the following categories:
(i) Gay or lesbian.
(ii) Heterosexual or straight.
(iii) Bisexual.
(iv) Questioning or unsure of sexual orientation.
(v) Queer.
(vi) Another sexual orientation.
(vii) Decline to answer or unknown.
(E) Primary language.
(2) Contains key conclusions, populations served, and the benefits conferred or realized, using quantitative and qualitative data, and resulting noncarceral, nonpunitive policy recommendations to provide guidance to the Legislature and the Governor in fully implementing and scaling a permanent statewide program.
(3) Contains the following aggregate data:
(A) The number of referrals for services that were received by each county. This data shall include the source of the referral, including, but not limited to, arresting officers, prosecutors, pretrial services, self-referrals, and walk-ins.
(B) The number and percentage of people who accepted services or referrals provided by or in collaboration with the county.
(C) The breakdown of the kinds of services or referrals survivors received.
(4) Is submitted on or before June 30 each year for the prior fiscal year.
(5) Is available to the public online and is free of charge.
(6) Is open for public comment for at least 30 business days after release.
(7) Excludes personally identifiable information as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and their implementing privacy and security regulations, the Information Practices Act of 1977, and any other applicable state or federal privacy laws.
5965.6.
 (a) This part shall become operative upon an appropriation by the Legislature.
(b) This part shall become inoperative one fiscal year after the appropriation described in subdivision (a).
SEC. 3.
 If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.