Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Long Beach, and Holly J. Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, coauthored eight equity and justice bills, four of which focus on young children in California’s juvenile justice system and another four that target injustices in the adult prison system.
Among the bills is Senate Bill 190, which this week was approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee. The measure would eliminate administrative fees faced by families with children in a youth detention or youth probation facility.
Another of the proposals is SB 395, which requires that a lawyer be present during a police interrogation before a child can waive his or her Miranda rights. The measure also was approved by the Public Safety Committee.
Senate Bill 394 also was approved by the committee. That proposal seeks to change existing laws that exclude the possibility of parole for young people with life sentences for committing certain crimes.
The last of the juvenile reform bills, SB 439, the Minimum Age Incarceration proposal, would prohibit children under the age of 11 from juvenile court jurisdiction. The bill would promote the rights of developing children while also preserving their emotional and mental well-being.
Senate Bill 355, which was recently passed by the Public Safety Committee, would only require people convicted of crimes to repay a court for legal counsel fees.
The sealing of arrests bill, known as SB 393, also was approved by the committee and would seal arrest records for adults taken into custody but not convicted of any crime.
Senate Bills 180 and 695 are awaiting hearings April 18. The first hopes to stop the needless spending in prisons and instead reinvest money in communities. The second, called the sex offender registry reform, would create a tiered process for registered sex offenders,
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