Caroline Menjivar

(1) Existing law establishes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (department) and sets forth its powers and duties regarding the administration of correctional facilities and the care and custody of inmates. Existing law requires law enforcement agencies to consider specified best practices when establishing policies and procedures for downloading and storing data from body-worn cameras, including, among other things, prohibiting the unauthorized use, duplication, or distribution of the data, and establishing storage periods for evidentiary and nonevidentiary data, as defined.

This bill would require the department to establish policies and procedures that include circumstances under which a body-worn camera may be deactivated and would require the department to ensure that those policies and procedures prohibit a body-worn camera from being deactivated only because there is no incarcerated person present or if the correctional staff member is not interacting with an incarcerated person. The bill would require the department's policies and procedures to authorize deactivation of a body-worn camera during specified confidential interactions and would require staff to inform the subject the reason for the deactivation and to document the time of the deactivation, the reason for the deactivation, and the time of reactivation.

This bill would require the department to adopt, and update regularly, a Prison Rape Elimination policy that would outline specified principles, including, among others, that the department maintains zero tolerance for sexual violence, staff sexual misconduct, and sexual harassment in its institutions, community correctional facilities, and conservation camps, and for all offenders under its jurisdiction.

(2) Under existing law, a person sentenced to imprisonment in a state prison for a felony offense, as specified, may, during that period of confinement, be deprived only of those rights as is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Existing law enumerates certain civil rights of these prisoners.

This bill would entitle a person incarcerated in a state prison to request the presence of an advocate during a physical or visual body cavity search, strip search, or body scan. The bill would require the department to document specified information, including whether the presence of an advocate was requested by the incarcerated individual, when an individual incarcerated in state prison is subject to any physical or visual body cavity search, strip search, or body scan of their person using a contraband or metal detection device or an electronic drug detection device. The bill would also require the department to document specified information if, during a medical appointment, an individual incarcerated in state prison requests the presence of an advocate who is not an employee of the department.

(3) Existing law requires members of the department's Office of Internal Affairs to possess certification from the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training for investigators, except as specified. Existing law requires the department to conduct a complete and thorough background check prior to training a peace officer who is selected to conduct internal affairs investigations and requires each person to satisfactorily pass the background check. Existing law states that any person who has been the subject of a sustained, serious disciplinary action, as specified, shall not pass the background check.

This bill would require an investigator to disclose an actual or potential conflict of interest they may have in an investigation in which they are participating. The bill would require the department to take appropriate action to remedy that conflict. The bill would require an investigator to recuse themselves from participating in an investigation or a decision related to an investigation if they have a conflict of interest involving a staff member with whom they have a personal relationship, as defined.

(4) Existing law authorizes the secretary of the department to prescribe and amend rules and regulations for the administration of prisons. Under existing law, the State Civil Service Act, certain acts, including convictions of certain crimes, are cause for discipline of a state employee or of a person whose name appears on an employment list.

This bill would prohibit the department from appointing or promoting a person to a position that may involve any contact with incarcerated persons, or engaging a contractor for services that may involve contact with incarcerated persons, if that person or contractor has engaged in sexual abuse in a prison or other correctional facility or institution, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from appointing or promoting any person to a position that may involve contact with incarcerated persons, or engaging a contractor for services that may involve contact with incarcerated persons, if that person or contractor has been convicted of certain offenses, including murder and rape, among others, or has been civilly or administratively adjudicated to have engaged in that conduct. The bill would require the department to consider any substantiated incident of sexual harassment in determining whether to appoint or promote an applicant and would require the department before appointing a new employee to make best efforts to contact all prior institutional employers for information on substantiated allegations of sexual abuse, among other things. The bill would require the department to conduct criminal background checks every 5 years of existing employees or implement a system to otherwise capture that information.

(5) Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for an employee or officer of a public entity health facility, or an employee, officer, or agent of a private person or entity that provides a health facility or staff for a health facility under contract with a public entity, to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult who is confined in a health facility. Existing law additionally makes it a misdemeanor for specified individuals, including an employee or officer of a public entity detention facility or an employee with a department, board, or authority under the department, to engage in sexual activity with a consenting adult who is confined in a detention facility or who is an inmate, ward, or parolee, as specified. Existing law makes it a felony for any subsequent violations for a person who was previously convicted of these violations. Existing law requires a person convicted of a felony violation of the above-described provisions who is employed by a department, board, or authority within the department to be terminated, as specified, and prohibits that person from being eligible to be hired or reinstated by the department. Existing law requires administrators to report criminal sexual abuse by staff to law enforcement authorities.

This bill would instead require that a person convicted of any violation of these provisions be terminated and prohibited from being reinstated by the department. The bill would also require that a person convicted of any violation of these provisions who is employed by a public entity health facility be terminated and made ineligible to be hired or reinstated by a public entity health facility. This bill would require administrators to report any known or suspected sexual abuse by staff to a local law enforcement agency.

(6) Existing law establishes the Office of the Inspector General that is responsible for, among other things, contemporaneous public oversight of internal affairs investigations and staff grievance inquiries conducted by the department's Office of Internal Affairs. Existing law requires the Office of the Inspector General to have investigatory authority over all staff misconduct cases that involve sexual misconduct with an incarcerated person, as specified.

This bill would authorize an incarcerated person to file an anonymous grievance relating to an allegation of sexual violence directly to the Office of the Inspector General, and would authorize the Inspector General to review any grievance filed from an incarcerated person, whether or not that grievance had been previously filed with the institution or hiring authority where the grievance occurred.

(7) Existing regulations establish a grievance procedure for individuals in the custody of, or under the supervision of, the department. Under those regulations, a claimant is required to submit a grievance no later than 60 calendar days after discovering an adverse policy, decision, action, condition, or omission by the department.

This bill would extend that time period to 120 calendar days.