Eight bills signed into
law; governor vetoes gate
money, prisoner pay hike
Following is an excerpt from Initiate Justice’s Policy Corner – Reprinted with permission
The following bills are not being sponsored by Initiate Justice but could materially impact the lives of incarcerated people. We are not sponsors of these bills, so please do not write to us for details. We do not offer advice or representation, so please contact your public defender or attorney for more information.
Below is a list of bills that passed the legislature and were signed by the Governor. Signed bills go into effect January 1, 2023:
AB 960 (Ting): Improves medical parole so more incarcerated people can be eligible for compassionate release.
AB 1706 (Bonta): Ensures all people with cannabis convictions will be resentenced and have their cases dismissed.
AB 1766 (Stone): Ensures more people leaving state prison will be issued valid state ID’s, if the DMV has the necessary documents on file.
AB 2657 (Stone): Ensures people on Death Row who are incompetent will not be executed and will be re-sentenced to LWOP.
SB 990 (Hueso): Allows people to parole to counties that are best for their education/vocational training.
SB 1008 (Becker): M akes phone calls free in state prisons and juvenile facilities.
SB 1139 (Kamlager): Requires CDCR to notify families when an incarcerated person is sent to the hospital or in other medical emergencies.
SB 1209 (Eggman): Allows more veterans to be resentenced who have been excluded from previous bills, namely if trauma from military experience was not considered as a mitigating factor at the time of sentencing. However, people convicted of Section 667 or an offense requiring registration pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 290 are not eligible.
The following bills were vetoed
by the governor and will not
be moving forward:
AB 2730 (Villapudua): Allows people within two years of release to be housed in a campus setting to get more vocational training before release.
SB 1304 (Kamlager): Increase gate money to $1,300 upon release from prison.
SB 1371 (BradFord): Increased pay for CDCR jobs over a five-year timeline.
The following bills were not successful and did not make it to the Governor:
AB 937 (Carrillo): Ends ICE transfers after completion of a prison sentence.
SB 300 (Cortese): This bill would have reformed the special circumstances law so only the person who took someone’s life, not accomplices, could receive an LWOP sentence. The bill was not retroactive.
ACA 3 (Kamlager): This Constitutional amendment would have removed involuntary servitude from the constitution. Since it did not pass the Legislature, it will not appear on the ballot this November.
