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AB-2065 Criminal justice records: offender data.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 04/17/2024 09:00 PM
AB2065:v97#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  April 17, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 18, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2065

Introduced by Assembly Member Kalra

February 01, 2024

An act to amend Section 1170.45 of, and to add Sections 745.1, 2069, and 13012.3 to, the Penal Code, relating to criminal justice records.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2065, as amended, Kalra. Criminal justice records: offender data.
(1) Existing law prohibits the state from seeking a criminal conviction or sentence on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin. Existing law authorizes a defendant to file a motion in the trial court or, if judgment has been imposed, to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus to allege a violation of this prohibition or to allege a violation on appeal.
Existing law requires all public records to be made available for inspection to the public, except as specifically exempted. Existing law exempts from disclosure certain records of law enforcement agencies.
This bill would require the disclosure of specified arrest records and data and specified probation reports to a licensed attorney that has submitted a request for such records and declared, under penalty of perjury, that the records are being requested for the purpose of investigating a claim or potential claim under the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, as specified.
By requiring additional duties of local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) Existing law requires the Judicial Council to collect data on criminal cases statewide relating to the disposition of those cases according to the race and ethnicity of the defendant, and report annually to the Legislature. Existing law additionally requires the Department of Justice to compile specified crime statistics and make that information available to the public, as specified.
This bill would require the Judicial Council to include additional data in their annual report to the Legislature, and to make the data available to the public in a machine-readable format.
The bill would also require the Department of Justice to include additional data in their crime statistics and make those data available to the public in a machine-readable format.
The bill would additionally require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to annually publish specified inmate data and to make those data available to the public in a machine-readable format.
(3) The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
(4) 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 specified reasons.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act to ensure that claims under the California Racial Justice Act of 2020 Section 745 of the Penal Code are resolved efficiently and meaningfully and that counsel for litigants and the courts have access to critical information to analyze and confront racial bias in policing, prosecution, and sentencing.

SEC. 2.

 Section 745.1 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

745.1.
 (a) Notwithstanding any contrary provision of the California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1 of the Government Code), the following records shall be promptly disclosed to a California licensed attorney upon request, as provided in this section:
(1) Any and all arrest records or arrest data within the period of time requested that are in the possession of any state or local law enforcement agency, regardless of the date of the arrest or the date of the creation of the record.
(2) Any and all probation reports within the period of time requested that are in the possession of a county probation department or, if no longer in the possession of the probation department, in the possession of the district attorney, regardless of the date they were prepared or submitted. For purposes of this paragraph, a probation report means a presentence report that was prepared and submitted to the court pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1203.
(b) Any request made pursuant to subdivision (a) must be made in writing and include a declaration under penalty of perjury that the requester is an attorney licensed in California and the records are being requested for the purpose of assisting in the investigation of a claim or potential claim under Section 745.
(c) In order to protect a privacy right or privilege, the agency in possession of records sought pursuant to this section may, in good faith, petition the court to permit the redaction of information prior to disclosure or subject disclosure to a protective order. If a statutory privilege or constitutional privacy right cannot be adequately protected by redaction or a protective order, the court shall consider if aggregate data can be reasonably provided. If there is no mechanism to adequately protect statutory privilege or constitutional privacy rights, the court shall order the record not to be released. This provision shall not be used to intentionally delay or obstruct the disclosure of records.
(d) As used in this section, “law enforcement agency” means any city police department, county sheriff’s department, or any other department or agency of the state, or any political subdivision thereof, that employs any peace officer as described in Section 830.

SEC. 3.

 Section 1170.45 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

1170.45.
 (a) The Judicial Council shall collect data on criminal cases statewide relating to the disposition of those cases according to the race and ethnicity of the defendant, and report annually thereon to the Legislature. It is the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds to the Judicial Council for this purpose.
(b) Commencing on January 1, 2025, the report required by this section shall be disaggregated by county of conviction and shall contain all of the following data: include county-level analysis.
(c) Commencing on January 1, 2025, the Judicial Council shall annually prepare and make available to the public in a machine-readable format the following data, without limitation, for each person convicted of a criminal offense during the calendar year:
(1) The race, ethnicity, gender, and age and gender of the defendant.
(2) The age of the defendant at the time of sentencing.

(2)The offenses

(3) Each offense for which the defendant is charged, was convicted, including the code section for each offense.

(3)The disposition of the cases, including, without limitation, whether a case resulted in a dismissal or a conviction.

(4) The county of conviction.
(5) For each convicted offense, the type of sentence imposed, including, but not limited to, a prison term, a jail term, a term of probation and jail, or a term of probation.

(4)The

(6) For each convicted offense, the length of the sentence imposed.

(c)

(d) If the number of individuals in any category of offenses or type of disposition for a county offense in paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) in any single county is fewer than 10, the report data shall list those numbers for that offense from that county as “fewer than 10” in order to protect personally identifying information. If the number is zero, the data shall list the number as zero.

(d)The data for the report shall be made available to the public in a machine-readable format.

SEC. 4.

 Section 2069 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

2069.
 The department shall annually prepare and make available to the public in a machine-readable format the following data, without limitation, for each person who is currently in department custody or, at any point during the calendar year preceding the release of the data, was in department custody:
(a) The person’s county of conviction.
(b) The code sections for the controlling offense and for each other offense for which the person was convicted.
(c) Any sentencing enhancements or alternate sentencing schemes that are part of the person’s sentence.
(d) The race, ethnicity, gender, and age of the person.
(e) The total length of the person’s sentence and the length of each component of the sentence.
(f) The date of sentencing.
(g) Any special circumstances listed in Section 190.2.
(h) If the number of individuals in any category of offense in subdivision (b) in any single county is fewer than 10, the data shall list those numbers for that offense from that county as “fewer than 10” in order to protect personally identifying information. If the number is zero, the data shall list the number as zero.

SEC. 5.

 Section 13012.3 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

13012.3.
 (a) The information published by the department under Section 13010 shall, in regard to the contents required by subdivision (a) of Section 13012, include, at a minimum, all of the following information for each arrest and disposition reported to the department pursuant to Sections 13150, 13151, and 13151.1:
(1) The arresting agency and county of arrest.
(2) The code section for the offense for which an individual was arrested.
(3) The race, ethnicity, gender, and age of the individual arrested.
(4) The disposition of each arrest. The report shall include whether an arrest resulted in a dismissal and the reason for dismissal, or a conviction.
(5) If an arrest ultimately resulted in a conviction, the report shall include the type of sentence the defendant received, including, but not limited to, a prison term, a jail term, a term of probation and jail term, or a term of probation.
(b) The data for the report shall be made available to the public in a machine-readable format.
(c) If the number of individuals in any category of offense in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) is fewer than 10 in any single county, the data shall list those numbers for that offense from that county as “fewer than 10” in order to protect personally identifying information. If the number is zero, the data shall list the number as zero.

SEC. 6.

 The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of this act, which adds Section 745.1 to the Penal Code, furthers, within the meaning of paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution, the purposes of that constitutional section as it relates to the right of public access to the meetings of local public bodies or the writings of local public officials and local agencies. Pursuant to paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution, the Legislature makes the following findings:
To ensure that claims under the California Racial Justice Act of 2020 (Chapter 317 of the Statutes of 2020) are resolved efficiently and meaningfully, it is necessary that counsel for litigants and the courts have access to critical information to analyze and confront racial bias in policing, prosecution, and sentencing.

SEC. 7.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district under this act would result either from a legislative mandate that is within the scope of paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution, or because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.