Legislature OKs bill to let noncitizens serve on California juries

SACRAMENTO — Legal immigrants who are not American citizens would be able to serve on juries in California under a bill that lawmakers sent to Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday.

The measure joins a proposal already on the governor's desk that would also allow legal permanent residents to serve as poll workers in California elections.

The bills are among a handful that would expand immigrant rights in California and have sparked rancorous debate in the Legislature.

Immigrants "are part of the fabric of our community," Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) said during the floor debate Thursday. "They benefit from the protections of our laws, so it is fair and just that they be asked to share in the obligation to do jury duty."

Republicans opposed the measure, which passed the Assembly with a bare majority. The Senate approved the bill Monday.

"I do think there is something called the jury of your peers," countered Assemblyman Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside). "Peers are people who understand the nuances of America."

He noted that some immigrants come from countries where suspects are guilty until proven innocent and where people are taught to obey authority, not question it.

The bill, AB 1401, was authored by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which seeks a way to expand the pool of eligible jurors in California.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles), who has said that non-citizens facing trial deserve a jury of their peers, supported the measure. He characterized it as the latest reform to a system that once barred non-whites and women from jury service.

"Really, it's about making sure that we uphold the standards of our justice system and make sure everybody is afforded a jury of their peers," Pérez said at a legislative hearing.

The other measure would reduce the time and expense that elections officials need to recruit poll workers and provide more bilingual services, according to Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), its author.

There are 3 million Californians who are eligible to vote but who are not proficient in English, Bonta said.

"We have a shortage of multilingual poll workers in California," he said. "There must be language access for voters at the polls, and that's what this bill provides."

Republicans said the bill could affect the integrity of the election process.

"Allowing people who are not actually eligible to vote to work in the polling places, I believe, would be a grave mistake," said Assemblyman Tom Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks). "The net effect is going to be to undermine the confidence that the citizens of California have in their election process."

Added Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point): "Something doesn't smell right to me."

Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) called such comments offensive. If non-citizens can serve in the military and die for this country, they ought to be able to work at the polls, he said.

The measure would allow up to five non-citizen workers at each polling place. It would continue the requirement that poll inspectors, who supervise and protect elections, be citizens.

The National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center proposed AB 817.

"Limited English speaking voters struggle to cast their ballots when bilingual poll workers are unavailable to assist them," said Eugene Lee, voting rights project director at the legal center.

Lawmakers also sent Brown a bill Thursday that would bar law enforcement agencies from requiring a person to show proof of legal residency to obtain a crime report. Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) authored the measure, AB 1195.

Other bills that went to Brown would:

— Allow counties to increase vehicle registration fees from $1 to $2 to fund anti-theft programs (AB 767 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Democrat from San Rafael).

— Increase the penalty for those convicted of making false 911 calls, a prank called "swatting" because it aims to draw out heavily armed SWAT teams, often to the homes of celebrities (SB 333 by Sen. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance and a swatting victim). Those convicted would be responsible for the full cost of the police response, which could be $10,000 or more.

— Prohibit the sale of animals at swap meets and flea markets unless the city or county adopts minimum animal care and treatment standards to prevent inhumane treatment and consumer fraud (AB 339 by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, a Democrat from Sacramento).

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

State, prison guards reach deal on new contract

Caifornia's state prison officers will receive a 4 percent pay raise and earn overtime more easily under the terms of a tentative agreement reached with Gov. Jerry Brown.

The deal also allows the state to continue reassigning staff to cover vacancies and reduces the length of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's academy training.

"We feel that the deal that was agreed on was a fair and equitable deal that is reflective of the way the bargaining process should work," California Correctional Peace Officers Association spokesman JeVaughn Baker said in a telephone interview. "Both parties made some concessions, and both parties gained in the process as well."

CCPOA leadership met in Sacramento on Saturday and unanimously voted to send the deal to its 30,000 rank-and-file members for a ratification vote. The two-year contract would expire in July 2015 if approved by members and the Legislature.

Costs of the agreement aren't yet available. A phone message seeking comment from Brown's Department of Human Resources, which negotiates contracts with the unions representing state employees, was not immediately returned Saturday afternoon.

Baker said the agreement:

• Provides a 4 percent pay raise, effective Jan. 1, 2015.

• Replaces the current threshold for overtime in which officers are paid at a higher rate after working 164 hours over a 28-day period with a new standard in which the overtime pay kicks in after working 41 hours over seven days.

• Allows the state to reduce cadets' academy training to 12 weeks from 16 weeks. The precise terms – how to alter academy courses, possible on-the-job mentoring for new correctional officers and the like – must still be negotiated.

• Allows the state to continue redirecting staff from duties it deems less critical to duties it deems more critical through June 30, 2014.

• Increases members' contributions to their retirement benefits from the current 11 percent of pensionable salary to 12 percent in July 2014 and then to 13 percent one year later. (This is in line with the public pension law passed last year by the Legislature that requires employees to pay half the normal cost of their pensions.)

Perhaps the largest union concession is the agreement to cut academy training by 25 percent. CCPOA has long tied academy training and standards to professionalism, pay and workplace safety.

Shortening the academy will save the state millions of dollars, however, both in training costs and by reducing overtime for higher-paid senior staff.

The union's agreement to allow staff redirection to continue until next summer extends a policy that the union has fought for years but also ends it for the final year of the contract. CCPOA has argued that the state should hire more officers rather than apply managerial Band-Aids to cover critical shortages.

The state's prison system has more than 1,000 staff vacancies every day, Baker said, and redirection saves somewhere between $34 million and $40 million annually by moving staff around to cover the holes.

The return to a regular workweek for purposes of overtime was a significant concession from the Brown administration, since it has the potential to run up overtime in a department that is chronically understaffed.

Still, with the prison system much smaller because of realignment, and an influx of academy graduates entering the system more quickly, overtime demand should decline, Baker said.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/25/5678749/state-prison-guards-reach-deal.html#mi_rss=State%20Politics#storylink=cpy

Just five 'job killer' bills alive as legislative session nears end

The more than three dozen bills that the California Chamber of Commerce labeled as "job killers" because they would increase regulation or raise taxes have been whittled down to just five as the 2013 legislative session enters its last days.

All of the others have either been held in committee or defeated in floor votes, but technically, will still be alive for the second half of the biennial session that begins in January.

The highest-profile survivor of the original 37 bills is Assembly Bill 10, carried by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, which would raise the state's minimum wage by $2 per hour over the next five years.

The measure was approved by the full Assembly and reached the Senate floor, awaiting another vote, after Alejo agreed to remove an automatic cost-of-living escalator.

The other four bills on the list that remain alive include:

• Senate Bill 404 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, which would extend the Fair Employmentand Housing Act's protections against discrimination to employees who are engaged in family care duties;


• Senate Bill 365 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which would place a 10-year time limit on business tax exemptions;


• Senate Bill 691 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, which would increase penalties for non-vehicular air quality violations; and


• Assembly Bill 769 by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which would repeal the net operating loss carry back deduction for business.

Seven constitutional amendments aimed at lowering the vote threshold for local government and school taxes are technically still alive, but would require two-thirds legislative votes to be placed on the 2014 ballot. Legislative leaders have put them on hold until next year.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/just-five-job-killer-bills-alive-as-legislative-session-nears-end.html#storylink=cpy

Community Legislative Briefing

Community Legislative Briefing

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Friday, August 23, 2013

10:00 - 12pm

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Los Angeles, CA 90017

Geo Community Reentry Services to Operate California Day Reporting Centers

BOULDER, Colo. — The California Department of Corrections and the Division of Adult Parole Operations has hired Geo Community Reentry Services, a division of Boca Raton, Fla.-based The Geo Group, to operate four intensive parolee reentry centers.

The centers, located in San Diego, Santa Ana, Pomona and French Camp, will serve more than 1,000 inmates annually.

“California corrections has undergone major changes in recent years, and we are ready to support the expansion of community-based services to reduce recidivism with these evidence-based programs,” said Loren Grayer, divisional vice president of Geo Reentry Services.

While the parole reentry centers in San Diego and French Camp will continue operation without disruption as operational authority transitions, the centers in Santa Ana and Pomona are scheduled to open in September.

The Day Reporting Centers (DRC) will aim to reduce recidivism by offering a wide range of programming for high risk inmates who have failed to successfully reenter into the general population. Staffed with licensed therapists, counselors, behavior change managers, vocational/educational managers and administrative staff, parolees at the DRCs will also be connected to local community resources for further support.

Inmates report to the center, which is open seven days a week, for up to six months. Daily check-ins, drug testing and intensive care management help to monitor an inmate’s progress. According to a press release issued by the company, parole agents are better able to manage their caseloads when high-risk parolees are able to attend Geo Reentry’s DRCs.

Along with reducing recidivism, the company hopes to also target employment or school enrollment, generate significant savings for taxpayers and alter parolee attitudes and behavior through classes available at the center.

Classes available at the DRC include substance abuse education and treatment; adult basic education; life skills development; cognitive restructuring therapy; parenting; domestic violence prevention; anger management; employment skills building and career development counseling; and relapse prevention aftercare. Inmates are also required to attend Community Connections, a program that provides parolees with local resources to housing, health services and additional counseling.

Obama Unveils $100M Initiative Focused on Veterans' Mental Health

During a speech at the annual conference of Disabled American Veterans in Orlando on Saturday, President Obama announced a $100 million initiative that would guide mental health research to help treat veterans with brain injuries and mental health conditions, theWashington Post reports (Goldfarb, Washington Post, 8/10).

Obama said that with combat activity winding down in Afghanistan, like it has in Iraq, the nation's work to address the health care effects of the two conflicts on military service members "has only just begun" (Calmes, New York Times, 8/10).

He said grants from the initiative will be disbursed to help fund various programs at research centers nationwide, including at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Virginia Commonwealth University. The programs are geared toward developing treatment methods for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions that have been linked to an increase in suicide rates among veterans in the past decade, according to the Post.

Under the initiative, Obama said his administration would launch an effort to better share such research amongst the numerous federal agencies. He noted, "I'm not going to be satisfied until every veteran ... gets the support and help they need to stay strong," adding, "We've got to end this epidemic of suicide among our veterans and troops" (Washington Post, 8/10).

Obama: Claims Backlog Slowly Declining

During his remarks, Obama highlighted progress in the government's efforts to reduce the backlog of veterans' disability claims, but he acknowledged that "[w]e are not where we need to be" (Superville, AP/Sacramento Bee, 8/11).

In March, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said VA is committed to ending the claims backlog by the end of 2015. Shinseki added that three major problem areas have contributed to the backlog:

• Large amounts of paper-based claims and health records that need to be converted to electronic format;
• A need to sync VA's records with Department of Defense's records; and
• A growing number of veterans who are qualifying for disability coverage.

Shinseki has said that VA aims to digitize the disability claims process in every regional office by the end of this year (Hooper, "Hill Tube," The Hill, 3/24).

On Saturday, Obama noted that in the past five months, the number of outstanding veterans' claims has fallen by nearly 20% (Hicks, "Federal Eye," Washington Post, 8/12). According to the AP/Sacramento Bee, the number of claims that have been pending for more than 125 days fell from 611,000 in March to about 500,000 in August (AP/Sacramento Bee, 8/11).

Obama said new computer systems, increased congressional funding and mandatory overtime for claims processors are "turning the tide." However, "it has not moved as fast as I've wanted," he added (Hennessey, "Politics Now," Los Angeles Times, 8/10). He attributed the slow progress, in part, to a swell of new veterans who entered the system with PTSD (Laing, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 8/10).

Obama warned that "reckless" budget cuts under the budget sequester pose the biggest threat to veterans' benefits (Mason, Reuters, 8/10). According to theWashington Post's "Federal Eye," the decline in outstanding claims has slowed since April, when the across-the-board spending cuts took effect and forced VA to cut overtime for processors and shorten call-center hours.

Obama noted that "the best way to protect the VA care you have earned is to get rid of the sequester altogether" ("Federal Eye," Washington Post, 8/12).  He called on Congress "to come together and agree on a responsible plan that reduces our deficit and keeps our promises to our veterans" (Reuters, 8/10).

Obama Reassures Veterans About Coverage

Meanwhile, Obama urged veterans not to be swayed by Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act, The Hill's "Blog Briefing Room" reports ("Blog Briefing Room,"The Hill, 8/10). He said there is a lot of "misinformation" being spread about the law and assured veterans that the ACA will not change coverage for veterans with private health insurance or coverage through VA (Hennessey, Los Angeles Times, 8/10). Obama noted that beginning in October, more than one million uninsured veterans will be able to enroll in coverage through the law's health insurance exchanges ("Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 8/10).

Holder to call for scaled-back use of mandatory minimum drug sentences

The Justice Department is planning to alter its policy on charging some drug offenders so that they will no longer face mandatory minimum prison sentences, according to remarks prepared for delivery Monday by Attorney General Eric Holder. 

In an address due to be given to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he is mandating that drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels and no history of violence won't be charged with offenses that impose mandatory minimums. Such sentences -- a product of the government's war on drugs in the 1980s -- limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter prison sentences on offenders.

Under the altered policy, the attorney general said defendants will instead be charged with offenses for which accompanying sentences "are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins."

According to Holder, mandatory minimum sentences "breed disrespect for the system. When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety. They have had a disabling effect on communities. And they are ultimately counterproductive."

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have already introduced legislation aimed at giving federal judges more discretion in applying mandatory minimums to certain drug offenders.

According to the Associated Press, federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity and hold more than 219,000 inmates -- with almost half of them serving time for drug-related crimes and many of them with substance use disorders.  In addition, 9 million to 10 million prisoners go through local jails each year. 

In his remarks, the attorney general praised state and local law enforcement officials for already instituting some of the types of changes Holder says must be made at the federal level.

Aggressive enforcement of federal criminal laws is necessary, but "we cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation," Holder said. "Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. However, many aspects of our criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this problem, rather than alleviate it."

"We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate -- not merely to convict, warehouse and forget," said the attorney general.

Holder said new approaches -- which he is calling the "Smart On Crime" initiative -- are the result of a Justice Department review he launched earlier this year.

The attorney general said some issues are best handled at the state or local level and said he has directed federal prosecutors across the country to develop locally tailored guidelines for determining when federal charges should be filed, and when they should not.

"By targeting the most serious offenses, prosecuting the most dangerous criminals, directing assistance to crime `hot spots,' and pursuing new ways to promote public safety, deterrence, efficiency and fairness -- we can become both smarter and tougher on crime," Holder said.

The attorney general said 17 states have directed money away from prison construction and toward programs and services such as treatment and supervision that are designed to reduce the problem of repeat offenders.

In Kentucky, legislation has reserved prison beds for the most serious offenders and refocused resources on community supervision. The state, Holder said, is projected to reduce its prison population by more than 3,000 over the next 10 years, saving more than $400 million.

He also cited investments in drug treatment in Texas for non-violent offenders and changes to parole policies which he said brought about a reduction in the prison population of more than 5,000 inmates last year. He said similar efforts helped Arkansas reduce its prison population by more than 1,400. He also pointed to Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Hawaii as states that have improved public safety while preserving limited resources.

Holder also said the department is expanding a policy for considering compassionate release for inmates facing extraordinary or compelling circumstances, and who pose no threat to the public. He said the expansion will include elderly inmates who did not commit violent crimes and who have served significant portions of their sentences.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/12/holder-to-call-for-changes-in-drug-sentencing-guidelines/#ixzz2bm4i1hXt