SB 286 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Elderly Parole Program.

Summary

Existing law establishes the Elderly Parole Program for the purpose of reviewing the parole suitability of inmates who are 50 years of age or older and who have served a minimum of 20 years of continuous incarceration on their sentence. Existing law requires the Board of Parole Hearings, when considering the release of qualifying inmates, to give special consideration to whether certain criteria have reduced the elderly inmate's risk for future violence. Existing law excludes various persons from these provisions, including, among others, persons convicted of serious felonies, persons convicted of first-degree murder of a peace officer, or persons sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This bill would additionally exclude, among others, persons receiving an enhancement to their sentence for committing certain sexual offenses including, among others, rape, sodomy, or lewd and lascivious acts, and habitual sex offenders. The bill would specify that these exclusions apply to all persons incarcerated as of January 1, 2026, regardless of the person's previous eligibility for parole or the status of any parole petition filed prior to that date.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 6, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

03/24/25 - Amended Senate → 04/09/25 - Amended Senate · 4 edits · Apr 9, 2025

MODERATE

SB 286 (Mary Bella's Law), which establishes an Elderly Parole Program for inmates 50 or older who have served at least 20 years, was amended to add Section 667.71 to the list of sentencing provisions that exclude individuals from eligibility. The amendment also cleaned up the bill summary language regarding habitual sex offender exclusions and removed a duplicate section heading. These changes narrow the program's scope by expanding the categories of offenders who are barred from participation.

SCOPE

Section 667.71 was added to subsection (i), meaning individuals sentenced under that provision are now also excluded from the Elderly Parole Program. This expands the list of sentencing schemes that disqualify an inmate from eligibility.

TECHNICAL

The bill summary was revised to fix a duplicated word ('acts') and restructure the sentence listing exclusions for first-degree murder, sexual offense enhancements, and habitual sex offenders into a single coherent clause.

A duplicate 'SECTION 1' heading was removed from the operative text, correcting a drafting error where the section number appeared twice in a row.

Subsection (h) numbering was restructured, with some items appearing to be renumbered or placeholder lines added, likely reflecting a drafting correction to the list of excluded offenses under Section 667.5 and Section 1192.7.

Floor votes

How they voted

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 23, 2025

Upper · Passed

May 23 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.

upper

Apr 9, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Apr 8, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 709.) (April 8).

upper

Mar 24, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.

upper

Feb 19, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on PUB. S.

upper

Feb 6, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor