BILL NUMBER: AB 999INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Skinner FEBRUARY 27, 2009 An act to amend Section 1719 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to juveniles. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 999, as introduced, Skinner. Juveniles: Board of Parole Hearings. Existing law sets forth the powers and duties of the Board of Parole Hearings with respect to juvenile court proceedings. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 1719 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read: 1719. (a)CommencingOn and after July 1, 2005, the following powers and duties shall be exercised and performed by the Board of Parole Hearings: discharges of commitment, orders to parole and conditions thereof, revocation or suspension of parole, and disciplinary appeals. (b) Any ward may appeal an adjustment to his or her parole consideration date to a panel comprised of at least two commissioners. (c) The following powers and duties shall be exercised and performed by the Division of Juvenile Facilities: return of persons to the court of commitment for redisposition by the court, determination of offense category, setting of parole consideration dates, conducting annual reviews, treatment program orders, institution placements, furlough placements, return of nonresident persons to the jurisdiction of the state of legal residence, disciplinary decisionmaking, and referrals pursuant to Section 1800. (d) The department shall promulgate policies and regulations implementing a departmentwide system of graduated sanctions for addressing ward disciplinary matters. The disciplinary decisionmaking system shall be employed as the disciplinary system in facilities under the jurisdiction of the Division of Juvenile Facilities, and shall provide a framework for handling disciplinary matters in a manner that is consistent, timely, proportionate, and ensures the due process rights of wards. The department shall develop and implement a system of graduated sanctions which distinguishes between minor, intermediate, and serious misconduct. The department may extend a ward's parole consideration date, subject to appeal pursuant to subdivision (b), from one to not more than 12 months, inclusive, for a sustained serious misconduct violation if all other sanctioning options have been considered and determined to be unsuitable in light of the ward's previous case history and the circumstances of the misconduct. In any case in which a parole consideration date has been extended, the disposition report shall clearly state the reasons for the extension. The length of any parole consideration date extension shall be based on the seriousness of the misconduct, the ward's prior disciplinary history, the ward's progress toward treatment objectives, the ward's earned program credits, and any extenuating or mitigating circumstances. The department shall promulgate regulations to implement a table of sanctions to be used in determining parole consideration date extensions. The department also may promulgate regulations to establish a process for granting wards who have successfully responded to disciplinary sanctions a reduction of up to 50 percent of any time acquired for disciplinary matters.