    |
    |
|
| |
|
 |
Legal corner:Bill of Interest to Prisonersby Cassie Pierson, Staff Attorney, Legal Services for Prisoners withChildren A brief search of the legislative web site, www.leginfo.ca. gov, turned up several bills addressing various issues of interest to prisoners, their families, friends, and advocates. This column focuses on four bills that CCWP supports in addition to SB 1385, which is discussed elsewhere in this newsletter. AB 1866 (Leno) and SB 1164 (Romero) address the issue of access to prisoners by the media. Both of these bills have language in them which will allow a journalist to receive "confidential" correspondence from prisoners, to conduct prearranged interviews with specified prisoners as well as randomly selected prisoners, and to bring pens, papers, audio and video recording devices with them to the interview. Similar "media access" bills have previously passed the legislature but were vetoed by governors Wilson and Davis. SB 1287 (Kuehl) requires that prior to accepting a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to any offense punishable as a crime, the court must state the following on the record: "If you are a custodial parent, you are hereby advised that conviction of the offense for which you have been charged may have consequences for your parental rights." The defendant can then request additional time to consider the appropriateness of a plea. After January 1, 2005, if the court fails to advise the defendant as required, and the defendant can show that the conviction may lead to termination of his or her parental rights, the court shall vacate the judgment and allow the defendant to withdraw the pleas of guilty or nolo contendere, and enter a plea of not guilty. If there is no record that a person was given the advisement by the court, it will be presumed that no advisement was given. AB 1946 (Steinberg) addresses the issue of compassionate release. This bill provides that a prisoner who has a terminal illness and is given a prognosis of less than 12 months to live and who is not a threat to public safety, is eligible for early release. In addition, there is language in the bill that requires the warden or the warden's representative to keep the prisoner and the prisoner's family informed about the prisoner's medical condition and about compassionate release proceedings. If the prisoner is granted a compassionate release, she is to be released within 48 hours of the court's order with her state identification, medical records, medications, and property in her possession. AB 1796 (Leno) would permit those convicted of drug felonies to qualify for food stamps. Specifically, the bill provides that California will opt out of the lifetime federal ban from food stamps for persons who were convicted of a drug felony. While California declined to include an opt-out provision in 1997 when it implemented welfare reform, there are several states, including Maine, Oregon, New York, and Ohio that opted out completely. Bills similar to AB 1796 were introduced in the past and were passed by the Assembly and Senate only to be vetoed by Gov. Davis. These are only a few of the many bills that are being developed in the Assembly and Senate. In the past few months there has been an increased awareness of the corruption present within the CDC and CYA that may lead to more positive legislation in the future. Many newspaper articles have appeared and legislators in Sacramento have held hearings about the state of corrections in California. CCWP encourages you to keep informed about what is happening in the legislature and to call or write your representatives and tell them you support the above bills! Last updated February 14, 2005 06:54 PM |
 |
||
