Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge children to be dependents of the court under certain circumstances, including when the child suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm, or a parent fails to provide the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment. Existing law establishes the grounds for removal of a dependent child from the custody of the child's parents or guardian, which include that their parent or guardian has been incarcerated or institutionalized and cannot arrange for the care of the minor. Existing law requires, if the parent or guardian is incarcerated or institutionalized, the court to order reasonable services, which may include visitation services, if appropriate, unless the court determines those services would be detrimental to the child. This bill would require any order placing a child in foster care, and ordering reunification services, to include specified provisions if the parent of the dependent child is incarcerated in a county jail, including, among others, that the incarcerated parent is entitled to in-person visitation, that the county jail is required to ensure that the incarcerated parent is made available to attend in-person visits with their dependent child, and that the child welfare agency and county jail are required to make a reasonable effort to document specified information relating to visitation and to include in all reports submitted to the court for each status review hearing a brief summary of visitation activity. The bill would authorize the use of videoconferencing technology or telephonic communication in lieu of in-person visits, as specified. By imposing new duties on child welfare agencies and county jails, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
The Budget Act of 2018 appropriated $50,000,000 to the Board of State and Community Corrections for a grant program, known as the Adult Reentry Grant Program, for the purpose of awarding competitive grants to community based organizations to support offenders formerly incarcerated in state prison. The Budget Act of 2018 allocated a specified amount of those funds for, among other things, rental assistance, rehabilitation of existing property or buildings, and to support the warm hand-off and reentry of offenders transitioning from prison to communities. Subsequent budget acts have continued to fund the program. This bill, instead, commencing July 1, 2026, and upon appropriation of funds, would transfer the administration of the grant program to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would require the department, on or before December 1, 2026, to modify the grant program to provide 5-year renewable grants to geographically diverse regional administrators responsible for funding permanent supportive housing and reentry services for eligible people, as specified. The bill would require the department to issue proposed guidelines or a draft notice, as specified, establishing the grant program and require the department to competitively score applicants applying for grant funds as regional administrators. The bill would require the department to work collaboratively with the State Department of Health Care Services, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and homeless continuums of care, and seek to work collaboratively with county probation departments, to establish a process for referrals of people eligible to participate in the program, as specified. The bill would also require the department to establish specified benchmarks to promote and track ideal outcomes from the program. This bill would require the department to distribute program funds by executing contracts with awarded regional administrators and would impose certain requirements on those regional administrators. The bill would prescribe eligibility requirements for a person scheduled for release from, or who has been be formerly incarcerated in, state prison, to participate in the program. The bill would require program funds to be used for specified purposes, including specified administrative fees, permanent housing, rental and operating subsidies, incentives to landlords, and voluntary multidisciplinary services, as specified. The bill would require the department, upon implementation of the program, to design an evaluation and hire an independent evaluator to assess outcomes from the program, and would require the evaluation to be submitted to specified committees of the Legislature. This bill would require the board to continue to oversee and administer existing program grants that have not yet expired, using resources allocated to the board through funds allocated by the Budget Act of 2025. This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish a process to engage an individual scheduled for discharge, within at least 210 days of the scheduled release date, for the purpose of assessing the individual's risk of homelessness upon discharge, as specified.
Existing law establishes the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program, administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections, to award competitive grants for the purpose of violence intervention and prevention. Existing law establishes the Youth Reinvestment Grant Program within the Board of State and Community Corrections to grant funds, upon appropriation, to local jurisdictions and Indian tribes for the purpose of implementing trauma-informed diversion programs for minors, as specified. Existing law requires the governing board of a school district to give diligent care to the health and physical development of pupils and authorizes the governing board of a school district to employ properly certified persons for the work. Existing law requires a school of a school district or county office of education and a charter school to notify pupils and parents or guardians of pupils no less than twice during the school year on how to initiate access to available pupil mental health services on campus or in the community, or both, as provided. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health, in cooperation with the State Department of Education, to establish a Public School Health Center Support Program, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to assist school health centers, which are defined as centers or programs, located at or near local educational agencies, that provide age-appropriate health care services at the program site or through referrals, as specified. This bill would create the Community Violence Interdiction Grant Program to be administered by the California Health and Human Services Agency to provide funding to local community programs for community-driven solutions to decrease violence in neighborhoods and schools. The bill would specify the types of programs the grant funds may be used for, including, but not limited to, programs that create and enhance recreation- and health-based interventions for youth during peak times of violence and the creation and operation of school-based health centers. The bill would require the agency to develop an application process and criteria for funding and would require the agency to administer the grant program, as specified. The bill would require, beginning July 31, 2026, and annually thereafter, the Director of Finance and the Legislative Analyst's Office to calculate the savings to the state from the closure of state prisons, as specified, and would require the Director of Finance to certify the results of the calculation to the Controller no later than August 1 of each fiscal year. The bill would create the Community Violence Interdiction Grant Fund and would require moneys in the fund to be made available, only upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the agency for the purposes of the Community Violence Interdiction Grant Program. The bill would require that the Controller, before August 15, 2026, and annually thereafter, upon appropriation by the Legislature, transfer from the General Fund to the Community Violence Interdiction Grant Fund the total amount of savings from the closure of state prisons so calculated.
Existing law allows a person who was arrested or convicted of a nonviolent offense while they were a victim of human trafficking to petition the court, under penalty of perjury, for vacatur relief. Existing law requires a court that issues an order for relief pursuant to these provisions to also order specified law enforcement agencies to seal and destroy their records of the offense. This bill would authorize a person arrested for or convicted of an eligible offense, as defined, before the person was 26 years of age to petition the court to have their records of that conviction or arrest sealed and destroyed if 4 years have elapsed since the date on which the person was arrested or completed any terms of incarceration, probation, mandatory supervision, postrelease community supervision, or parole associated with the record, whichever was later, during which the person has not been convicted of a new offense. The bill would require a court granting this relief to also order specified law enforcement agencies to seal and destroy their records. By increasing duties on local law enforcement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would exclude specified offenses from being considered an eligible offense, including, among others, a serious or violent felony, a sex offense, or an offense that may be plead and proved as a prior offense for purposes of imposing an increased sentence or enhancement upon conviction. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) Existing law establishes procedures by which a person may petition the court for certain protective or restraining orders, including civil harassment restraining orders, domestic violence restraining orders, elder or dependent adult abuse restraining orders, gun violence restraining orders, postsecondary school restraining orders, and workplace violence restraining orders, to enjoin a restrained person from taking specified actions. Beginning January 1, 2026, upon a court's issuance of such a protective order, existing law will require the restrained person to relinquish any firearm and ammunition in that person's immediate possession or control, according to specified procedures. Existing law prescribes procedures by which the restrained person must certify compliance with the court, and for the court to determine, by a preponderance of the evidence, whether the person has a firearm in violation of the order. This bill would make clarifying and conforming changes to the procedures relating to the protective or restraining orders described above by explicitly requiring the restrained person to relinquish, in addition to any firearm, any ammunition in that person's immediate possession or control. The bill would require courts to permit a party, support person, or witness to appear remotely at a hearing for a postsecondary educational institution or workplace violence restraining order at no cost. This bill would also require courts to develop rules and instructions for such remote appearances and to post them on its website. (2) Existing law requires a peace officer who is at the scene of a domestic violence incident or enforcing a domestic violence restraining order or gun violence restraining order to take temporary custody of any firearm or other deadly weapon in plain sight or discovered pursuant to a consensual or otherwise lawful search, as specified. This bill would additionally require a peace officer to take temporary custody of any ammunition in plain sight or discovered pursuant to such a search. By expanding the duties of local law enforcement agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law allows a person who was arrested or convicted of a nonviolent offense while they were a victim of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence, to petition the court, under penalty of perjury, for vacatur relief. Existing law requires, to receive that relief, that the crime for which the person was arrested or convicted was a nonviolent offense and that the person establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that the arrest or conviction was the direct result of being a victim of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence. Existing law authorizes the court to vacate the conviction if it concludes that the petitioner was a victim of one of those crimes at the time of the alleged commission of the offense, the arrest was a direct result of being a victim of that offense, and the vacatur is in the best interest of justice. This bill would allow that relief for a person arrested or convicted of any offense, except murder, as specified. Because this bill would authorize more petitions to be filed under penalty of perjury, by expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. If a court issues an order for a person who was arrested or convicted of an offense while they were a victim of intimate partner violence or sexual violence, existing law requires the court to order the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the offense, the Department of Justice, and any law enforcement agency that arrested the petitioner or participated in the arrest of the petitioner to seal their records of the arrest and the court order to seal and destroy the records within 3 years from the date of the arrest, or within one year after the court order is granted, whichever occurs later, and thereafter to destroy their records of the arrest and the court order to seal and destroy those records. This bill would require the court to also order any law enforcement agency that has taken action or maintains records related to or because of the offense, including, but not limited to, departments of probation, rehabilitation, corrections, and parole, to seal and destroy their records. The bill would require those agencies to seal their records of arrest and the court order to seal and destroy the records within one year from the date of arrest, or within 90 days after the court order is granted, whichever occurs later. The bill would require the agencies to destroy these records within one year of the date of the court order. By increasing duties on local law enforcement, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require the Department of Justice to notify the petitioner and the petitioner's counsel that the department has complied with the order to seal the arrest records by the applicable deadline. Existing law creates an affirmative defense against a charge of a crime that the person was coerced to commit the offense as a direct result of being a victim of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence at the time of the offense and when the person had reasonable fear of harm. Existing law prohibits this defense from being used with respect to a violent felony, as defined. This bill would allow that defense to be used with respect to a violent felony, except for murder, as specified. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and requires the department to be responsible for, among other things, fire protection and prevention, as provided. Existing law establishes the California Conservation Camp program for the purpose of having incarcerated persons work on projects supervised by the department. Existing law requires the department to utilize incarcerated persons assigned to conservation camps in performing fire prevention, fire control, and other work at the department. This bill would require the department to, in partnership with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Conservation Camp program, implement a standardized process to ensure that all individuals who complete the department's firefighting training program (FFT program) while incarcerated receive official written certification before their release, as specified. The bill would require the department to, on or before January 1, 2027, award hiring preference under Category Placement 2 to qualified formerly incarcerated individuals who apply for positions with the department. The bill would also require the department to track the number of incarcerated individuals who have completed the FFT program and are set to be released within 90 days, develop and implement policies and procedures to track and report the outcomes of the Formerly Incarcerated Firefighter Certification and Employment Program, and report annually to the Legislature on the implementation and effectiveness of the program, as provided. The bill would make these provisions operative only upon an appropriation by the Legislature for its purposes, as provided.
The Trial Jury Selection and Management Act requires all persons be selected for jury service at random and from sources inclusive of a representative cross section of the population of the area served by the court. Existing law requires a trial judge to examine the prospective jurors in jury trials. Existing law gives the counsel for each party, after this initial examination, the right to examine any of the prospective jurors, as specified, in order to enable counsel to intelligently exercise both peremptory challenges and challenges for cause. Existing law requires, prior to the examination of prospective trial jurors in the panel assigned for voir dire, a specified perjury acknowledgment and agreement to be obtained from the prospective jurors. Existing law requires, after the selection of the trial jury is completed, another specified acknowledgment and agreement to be obtained from the trial jurors. This bill would revise the acknowledgment and agreements obtained from the jury panel prior to the examination of prospective trial jurors assigned for voir dire and after the completion of selection of trial jurors.
(1) Existing law establishes the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to, among other functions, certify the eligibility of those persons appointed as peace officers throughout the state. Existing law authorizes POST, as specified, to decertify a certified peace officer for engaging in serious misconduct, as specified. Existing law requires any agency that employs peace officers to, within 10 days, notify POST of specified occurrences including any complaint, charge, or allegation of serious misconduct by a peace officer employed by that agency and the final disposition of any investigation into that complaint, charge, or allegation, regardless of the discipline actually imposed. Existing law provides that each law enforcement agency shall be responsible for the completion of an investigation into any allegation of serious misconduct by an officer, regardless of the officer's employment status. Existing law establishes the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) within the Department of Justice to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information between law enforcement agencies in the state. This bill would require POST employees whose job duties require access to criminal offender record information, state summary criminal history information, or information obtained from CLETS to undergo a fingerprint-based state and national criminal history background check, as specified. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain state summary criminal history information, as defined, and to furnish this information to various state and local government officers, officials, and other prescribed entities, if needed in the course of their duties. Existing law makes it a crime for a person authorized by law to receive state summary criminal history information to knowingly furnish that information to a person who is not authorized to receive it. This bill would authorize the commission and all persons for whom background checks have been completed and their duties require access to inspect or duplicate any information derived from CLETS. The bill would additionally authorize the commission and the Peace Officer Standards Accountability Division to inspect and duplicate any criminal history information, criminal offender record information, or criminal justice information, or any other sensitive, confidential or privileged information if the commission determines that the information is needed in the course of the commission's duties. By expanding the scope of the crime of unlawful disclosure of state summary criminal history information, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) 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 a specified reason. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. Existing law establishes the California Cannabis Tax Fund as a continuously appropriated fund consisting of specified taxes, interest, penalties, and other amounts related to commercial cannabis activity. Each fiscal year, AUMA requires the Controller to make specified disbursements from the fund, including, through the 2022–23 fiscal year, reasonable costs incurred by the Department of Cannabis Control for implementing, administering, and enforcing MAUCRSA. This bill would require the Controller to make a disbursement from the fund for reasonable costs incurred by the Department of Cannabis Control for maintaining and operating the track and trace program and for conducting civil or criminal enforcement against unauthorized commercial cannabis activity, as specified. By requiring moneys in the California Cannabis Tax Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, to be used for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. AUMA also requires the Controller to make a disbursement from the fund to the Board of State and Community Corrections for making grants to local governments to assist with law enforcement, fire protection, or other local programs addressing public health and safety associated with the implementation of AUMA. AUMA prohibits the board from making grants to local governments that ban both indoor and outdoor commercial cannabis cultivation, or ban retail sale of cannabis or cannabis products. This bill would repeal that prohibition, thereby authorizing the Board of State and Community Corrections to make grants to local governments that ban both indoor and outdoor commercial cannabis cultivation or ban retail sale of cannabis or cannabis products. In order to be eligible for a grant, the bill would require a local government either to allow the retail sale of cannabis in storefronts or, for jurisdictions with a population of 10,000 residents or less, to allow cannabis delivery, as specified. The bill would require the board to prioritize grant awards for local governments whose grant application includes illicit cannabis enforcement, and would authorize the board to award grants both competitively and based on a formula to provide consistent and ongoing funding for local governments, as provided. AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend its provisions with a 23 vote of both houses to further its purposes and intent, except as specified. This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of AUMA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
