California lawmakers in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday blocked a measure that would have classified human trafficking of a minor as a serious felony under state law, an effort that attempted to keep repeat offenders behind bars and make them ineligible to be released from prison early.
The measure was halfway through the state’s legislative process, having cleared the State Senate unanimously with broad, bipartisan support. None of the six Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee were willing to cast a vote on the measure Tuesday. Republican Assemblymen Juan Alanis and Tom Lackey were the bill’s only yes votes.
The bill’s author, state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said she was blindsided.
“I am profoundly disappointed that committee Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support the bill, with their stubborn and misguided objection to any penalty increase regardless of how heinous the crime,” Grove said. “You can pass a note to a bank and rob a bank, you can commit arson, and that’s considered a serious felony. But to traffic a minor child in the state of California is not. That’s wrong.”
Grove noted repeat offenders who traffic people under the age of 17 are eligible for early release credits and aren’t required to serve their full prison sentences. For example, someone sentenced to the maximum, 12 years in prison for the crime, may end up serving four years with the right amount of good conduct credits. The measure, SB 14, would have made the offense subject to California’s Three Strikes Law, meaning those who are convicted of the crime again would face harsher penalties on their next offense, potentially up to life in prison.
Opponents of the measure, including the Ella Baker Center, have said the state already has laws in place to keep traffickers in prison for a significant amount of time. The Assembly Public Safety Committee Chairman, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, said in Tuesday’s hearing more prison time would not address the root of the problem.
Despite his opposition, Jones-Sawyer promised to work with Grove to work on the legislation.
“I think there is a lane we can get to, you and I have not discussed this one on one,” Jones-Sawyer told Grove in the hearing. “I get where you’re coming from.”
Grove told KCRA 3 that prior to Tuesday’s hearing, she reached out to Jones-Sawyer on his cellphone three times, and her staff reached out to his staff six or seven times, but he refused to take a meeting.
Jones-Sawyer’s office provided this response: “The Assemblymember’s office is aware of a single call from Senator Grove’s staff to his legislative director on Friday, July 7, to advise that the Senator had spoken with the Public Safety Committee’s staff about amendments. The conversation was brief, resulting in no changes to either office’s positions on the bill.”
Grove also said she had positive discussions with the Democrats on the committee before the hearing, including Assembly members Isaac Bryan, Rick Zbur, Miguel Santiago and Liz Ortega.
“They all thought it was a good bill and said they would consider it, but there is this issue of rolling the chair, so I don’t think anyone was going to stand up against the chair,” Grove said.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee and its leader, Jones-Sawyer, received criticism this year after refusing to hear fentanyl-related public safety bills. The committee has also rejected other measures that would increase penalties for domestic violence offenders, rapists of developmentally disabled children and other sexually violent crimes.
One of the sentence enhancements the committee has approved boosted penalties against people convicted of damaging or destroying property worth more than $275,000.
Law enforcement officials in the Sacramento area have said human trafficking is a growing problem in the area. A study last year found 13,000 people had been trafficked in Sacramento County alone in recent years, with some victims as young as 14.
source: KCRA3
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