AB1452:v99#DOCUMENTBill Start
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1452
Introduced by Assembly Member Ting
|
February 19, 2021 |
An act to amend Section 5009 of the Penal Code, relating to prisons.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1452, as introduced, Ting.
State prison.
Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to operate the state prison system. Existing law provides for the protection of religious freedoms for state prison inmates, as specified.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.
Digest Key
Vote:
MAJORITY
Appropriation:
NO
Fiscal Committee:
NO
Local Program:
NO
Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 5009 of the Penal Code is amended to read:5009.
(a) It is the intention of the Legislature that all prisoners shall be afforded reasonable opportunities to exercise religious freedom.(b) (1) Except in extraordinary circumstances, upon the transfer of an inmate to another state prison institution, any member of the clergy or spiritual adviser who has been previously authorized by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to visit that inmate shall be granted visitation privileges at the institution to which the inmate is transferred within 72 hours of the transfer.
(2) Visitations by members of the clergy or spiritual advisers shall be subject to the same rules, regulations, and
policies relating to general visitations applicable at the institution to which the inmate is transferred.
(3) A departmental or volunteer chaplain who has ministered to or advised an inmate incarcerated in state prison may, voluntarily and without compensation, continue to minister to or advise the inmate while he or she the inmate is on parole, provided that the departmental or volunteer chaplain so notifies the warden and the parolee’s parole agent in writing.
(c) Nothing in this section limits This section does not limit the
department’s ability to prohibit a departmental chaplain from ministering to a parolee, or to exclude a volunteer chaplain from department facilities, if either is found to be in violation of any law or regulation and that violation would ordinarily be grounds for adverse action or denial of access to a facility or person under the department’s custody.