SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) California’s punitive carceral system unjustly and disproportionately harms Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian and Pacific Islander American communities. The California prison population peaked at more than 165,000 in 2006 in a system designed to house just 85,000 individuals due to decades of draconian laws that over-criminalized children of color, applied one-size-fits-all sentencing laws, and provided little to no opportunities for rehabilitated individuals to be considered for release on parole by the Board of Parole Hearings.

(b) In recent years, the Legislature and California voters have demonstrated a strong commitment to reforming our criminal system and ending mass incarceration by enacting the following landmark reforms. Through these reforms, certain incarcerated individuals have the opportunity to be considered for resentencing or release.

(c) With the passing of Senate Bill 260 of the 2013–14 Regular Session of the Legislature, Senate Bill 261 of the 2015–2016 Regular Session of the Legislature, Senate Bill 394 of the 2017–18 Regular Session of the Legislature, and Assembly Bill 1308 of the 2017–2018 Regular Session of the Legislature, based on the brain development of young people, the hallmark features of youth, and the ability for incarcerated young people to grow and mature, California created a parole process for people who were 25 years of age or younger at the time of their commitment offenses, and sentenced to life sentences or long determinate sentences.

(d) Through the elderly parole program, medical parole, and compassionate release processes, California acknowledged incarcerated populations who do not pose a threat to public safety and provided opportunities to be considered for release based on advanced age, fatal illness, or permanent incapacity.

(e) Through the enactment of both the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, and the Racial Justice Act for All, the California Legislature recognized discrimination in our criminal justice system based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. The legislation created an opportunity to challenge convictions and sentences sought, obtained, or imposed on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.

(f) Acknowledging the injustice of convicting an individual of murder even if they did not kill anyone or intend to kill anyone, and that the felony murder legal theory has been weaponized to impose harsh convictions and sentences on persons of color and survivors of violence, the Legislature enacted Senate Bill 1437 of the 2017–18 Regular Session of the Legislature, which placed some limits on the legal basis for convicting someone of the crime of murder.

(g) Recognizing that the relevant experiences of survivors of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence should be considered by courts when survivors come into contact with the criminal system, the Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 124 of the 2021–22 Regular Session of the Legislature.

(h) Despite these reforms, when California’s jails and prisons voluntarily and unnecessarily transfer immigrant and refugee community members eligible for release from state or local custody to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immigration detention and deportation purposes, they subject these community members to double punishment and further trauma. Immigrant community members can be incarcerated by ICE, often for prolonged periods and with no right to bail, and deported, permanently banishing them from the country, from their families, their homes, their livelihoods and “all that makes life worth living.” Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276, 284 (1922). The Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged that for many people deportation is a more severe penalty than any jail sentence. See, e.g., Lee v. U.S., 137 S.Ct. 1958, 1968 (2017); Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 364 (2010).

(i) Community members transferred to ICE are refugees, lawful permanent residents, people who entered the United States as children, parents, caretakers, essential workers, or are otherwise valued California residents. Ending ICE transfers in California for individuals who have earned their release from county jail and individuals released from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation pursuant to the reforms described in subdivisions (c) through (g) is a reflection of the state’s commitment to ending racial injustice and mass incarceration.

(j) The United States Constitution and the California Constitution protect all persons present within our borders from unreasonable searches and seizures, from deprivations of life, liberty or property without due process of law, from being deprived of equal protection under the law, including from being targeted on the basis of race or ethnicity. This act embodies and protects these values by ensuring that Californians, including refugees and immigrants, are treated equally by laws passed to advance much needed criminal justice reform. It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure the right of equal treatment under the United States Constitution, the California Constitution, and the above-referenced criminal justice reforms, which has been conferred to all immigrants and refugees in California.

(k) To ensure an equitable opportunity for noncarceral, rehabilitative and diversionary dispositions or custody status to all persons involved in the criminal legal system, irrespective of immigration status, it is the intent of the Legislature to abrogate case law that is inconsistent with this value, including, but not limited to, People v. Sanchez (1987) 190 Cal.App.3d 224; People v. Cisneros (2000) 84 Cal.App.4th 352; People v. Espinoza (2003) 107 Cal.App.4th 1069; People v. Arce (2017) 11 Cal.App.5th 613.

(l) This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Harmonizing our Measures for Equality (HOME) Act.