Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to ensure that specified procedures are performed in the investigation and prosecution of sexual abuse incidents, including, among others, that an employee must be terminated if an investigation confirms that the employee sexually abused an inmate. Existing law requires administrators to report criminal sexual abuse by staff to law enforcement authorities.
This bill would require the department to monitor for 90 days an incarcerated person who reports sexual abuse, and the incarcerated person reported to have suffered the abuse, by a staff person at a department facility for possible retaliation.
Existing law authorizes a defendant to submit to a sentencing court a petition for recall and resentencing when a defendant, who was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of a specified offense for which the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole, has been incarcerated for at least 15 years. Existing law authorizes a court to consider specified factors when determining whether to resentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment with the possibility of parole including, among others, that the defendant has had no disciplinary actions for violent activities in the last five years in which the defendant was determined to be the aggressor.
This bill would authorize a court to also consider if the defendant has been a victim of sexual abuse or sexual violence at any time during their incarceration when determining whether to resentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
Existing law authorizes, when a defendant has been committed to the state prison or to a county jail for the commission of a felony, the court to recall the sentence and either reduce a defendant's term by modifying the sentence, or vacate the conviction and impose judgment on any necessarily included lesser offense or lesser related offense and, resentence the defendant to a reduced term. Existing law requires the court to consider, in recalling and resentencing pursuant to these provisions, postconviction factors, including, among others, evidence that circumstances have changed since the original sentencing so that continued incarceration is no longer in the interest of justice. Existing law states that a defendant is not entitled to relief from these provisions, and that a court is not required to respond to a defendant's requests for relief pursuant to these provisions.
This bill would authorize, beginning on July 1, 2025, a defendant to file a petition for relief pursuant to these provisions, and would make that defendant entitled to a response from the court, if, among other things, the defendant is currently committed to the custody of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the defendant currently has a minimum sentence of at least 15 years, and the application of the current sentencing rules of the Judicial Council and any changes in sentencing laws enacted since the defendant was last sentenced would make the defendant eligible for a reduced sentence if applied to the defendant.
Existing law requires various civil actions to be brought within specified periods of time, but these periods of limitation are tolled for 2 years during the time that the person entitled to bring the action is imprisoned on a criminal charge for a term less than life. However, under existing law these provisions do not apply to an action brought against a public entity or public employee, as specified.
This bill would require an action for sexual assault brought against a public entity or public employee by a person who is imprisoned on a criminal charge, or in execution under the sentence of a criminal court, to be tolled during the period of imprisonment and until one year after the release from actual custody.

Statutes affected:
06/10/24 - Amended Assembly: 1170 PEN, 1172.1 PEN
06/26/24 - Amended Assembly: 1170 PEN, 1172.1 PEN
08/19/24 - Amended Assembly: 1170 PEN, 1172.1 PEN
08/20/24 - Amended Assembly: 1170 PEN, 1172.1 PEN
08/23/24 - Amended Assembly: 1170 PEN, 1172.1 PEN