Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6 — Slavery (Introduced Feb. 6, 2025)
Amends the constitution of the State of California to prohibit slavery in all forms. Clarifies that its provisions do not prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from awarding credits to an incarcerated person who voluntarily accepts a work assignment.
Assembly Bill 812 — Recall and resentencing: incarcerated firefighters (Introduced Feb. 19, 2025)
Authorizes the court to consider a recall and resentencing request from an incarcerated firefighter upon a recommendation from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Requires the court, upon receipt of a request, to conduct a hearing to determine whether recall and resentencing would serve the interest of justice based on certain considerations. The bill was sent to the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on March 3, 2025.
Assembly Bill 1140 — Single-Occupancy Cell Pilot Program (Introduced Feb. 20, 2025)
Enacts the Single-Occupancy Cell Pilot Program. Requires the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to develop and implement a pilot program to house people who are incarcerated at four adult prison facilities in single-occupancy cells by Jan. 1, 2027.
Assembly Bill 247 — Incarcerated individual hand crew members: wages (Introduced Jan. 15, 2025)
Provides that existing law makes an inmate of a county jail who has completed training for assignment to a state or county facility as an inmate firefighter, or who is assigned to a state or county facility as an inmate firefighter, eligible for credits. Requires an incarcerated individual hand crew member, in addition to receiving credits, to be paid an hourly wage equal to a specified amount while assigned to an active fire incident. Requires that wage rate to be updated annually. The bill has gone through its second revision and has been re-referred to the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on March 5, 2025.
Senate Bill 498 — County detention: commissary (Introduced Feb. 19, 2025)
Requires that indigent incarcerated persons and indigent ward or detainees be provided basic hygiene products free of charge and require that those individuals have guaranteed access to hygiene products, upon their request. This bill was sent to the Senate Committee on Public Safety on Feb. 26, 2025.
Assembly Bill 1229 — Adult Reentry Grant Program (Introduced Feb. 21, 2025)
Transfers the administration of the Adult Reentry Grant Program to the Department of Housing and Community Development. Requires the department, on or before Dec. 1, 2026, to modify the grant program to provide 5-year renewable grants to up to 6 regional administrators responsible for funding permanent affordable housing and services for people who were formerly incarcerated in state prison and are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
Assembly Bill 799 — Prisons: death benefit for incarcerated firefighters (Introduced Feb. 1, 2025)
Requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to pay a death benefit, as specified, for the death of any incarcerated crew members in the California Conservation Camp program, as specified. The bill went to the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on March 3, 2025.
Senate Bill 672 — The Youth Rehabilitation and Opportunity Act (Introduced Feb. 21, 2025)
Enacts the Youth Rehabilitation and Opportunity Act. Makes a person who was convicted of a controlling offense that was committed when the person was 25 years of age or younger and for which they were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole eligible for parole after their 25th year of incarceration, except as specified. The bill was sent to the Senate Committee on Public Safety on March 5, 2025.
Assembly Bill 285 — Criminal procedure: protective orders (Introduced Jan. 22, 2025)
Requires the court, if the defendant is convicted of domestic violence and is sentenced to incarceration in the state prison, to, at the time of sentencing, order that upon the defendant’s release from prison, the defendant be served with a temporary criminal protective order protecting the same identified victim or victims from the original protective order. Requires this order to last for no more than 180 days. The bill passed from the Assembly Committee on Public Safety to the Committee on Appropriations on March 4, 2025.
Assembly Bill 722 — Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program (Introduced on Feb. 14, 2025)
Establishes the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program. Requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, on or before July 1, 2026, to take specified actions to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, provide grants to applicants, as defined, for innovative or evidence-based housing, housing-based services, and employment interventions to allow people with recent histories of incarceration to exit homelessness and remain stably housed. The bill went to the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development on March 3, 2025.
Assembly Bill 1036 — Criminal procedure: postconviction discovery (Introduced Feb. 20, 2025)
Authorizes reasonable access, except as specified, to discovery materials for felonies resulting in a sentence of one year of incarceration or more and would no longer require a showing that efforts to obtain discovery from trial counsel were unsuccessful. Broadens the definition of discovery materials to include, among other things, materials from any prosecutor who tried or worked on the case that tend to negate guilt or mitigate the sentence or offense.
