Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to oversee the state prison system. Existing law makes it a crime to willfully threaten to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat and which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety.

This bill would require the department to establish a statewide policy on operational procedures for the handling of threats made by inmates or wards, and threats made by family members of inmates or wards, against department staff. The bill would require that the policy include methods to ensure that department staff members are advised of threats made against them by inmates, wards, or family members of inmates or wards, and that all threats against department staff made by inmates or wards, and their family members, are thoroughly investigated. The bill would require an individual institution within the department that has a more detailed policy to make the policy accessible to every member of the staff of the institution. The bill would require the department to provide training on the policy developed pursuant to these provisions as part of its existing training programs and would require the policy to be fully implemented by July 1, 2016.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.