SECTIONS 500-506 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 500-506

500. The Legislature hereby finds that a substantial and
disproportionate amount of serious crime is committed by a relatively
small number of chronic juvenile offenders commonly known as serious
habitual offenders. In enacting this article, the Legislature
intends to support increased efforts by the juvenile justice system
comprised of law enforcement, district attorneys, probation
departments, juvenile courts, and schools to identify these offenders
early in their careers, and to work cooperatively together to
investigate and record their activities, prosecute them aggressively
by using vertical prosecution techniques, sentence them
appropriately, and to supervise them intensively in institutions and
in the community. The Legislature further supports increased
interagency efforts to gather comprehensive data and actively
disseminate it to the agencies in the juvenile justice system, to
produce more informed decisions by all agencies in that system,
through organizational and operational techniques that have already
proven their effectiveness in selected counties in this and other
states.

501. (a) There is hereby established in the Office of Criminal
Justice Planning a program of financial assistance for law
enforcement, district attorneys, probation departments, juvenile
courts, and schools, designated the Serious Habitual Offender
Program. All funds appropriated to the Office of Criminal Justice
Planning for the purposes of this article shall be administered and
disbursed by the executive director of that office, and shall, to the
greatest extent feasible, be coordinated or consolidated with
federal funds that may be made available for these purposes.
(b) From moneys appropriated therefor, the Executive Director of
the Office of Criminal Justice Planning may allocate and award funds
to agencies in which programs are established in substantial
compliance with the policies and criteria set forth in this article.
Awards made to individual agencies shall not exceed three years in
duration. An agency receiving an award shall provide matching funds
at an increasing rate each year; the rate shall be as determined by
the Office of Criminal Justice Planning for that agency.
(c) Allocation and award of funds for the purposes of this article
shall be made upon application by a district attorney, a local law
enforcement agency, a probation department, or a school district,
that has been approved by the appropriate governing board of the
particular agency. The applicant agency shall use the funds to create
an information gathering and analysis unit responsible for the
identification of serious habitual offenders and for the
dissemination of information about the activities of those offenders
to the juvenile justice system. This unit shall participate in the
planning, support, and assistance of activities required in Sections
503 to 506, inclusive. Funds disbursed under this article shall not
supplant local funds that would, in absence of the program
established by this article, be made available to support the
juvenile justice system. Local grant awards made under the program
shall not be subject to review as specified in Section 14780 of the
Government Code.

502. (a) An individual shall be the subject of the efforts of
programs established pursuant to this article who has been previously
adjudged a ward pursuant to Section 602 and is described in any of
the following paragraphs:
(1) Has accumulated five total arrests, three arrests for crimes
chargeable as felonies and three arrests within the preceding 12
months.
(2) Has accumulated 10 total arrests, two arrests for crimes
chargeable as felonies and three arrests within the preceding 12
months.
(3) Has been arrested once for three or more burglaries,
robberies, or sexual assaults within the preceding 12 months.
(4) Has accumulated 10 total arrests, eight or more arrests for
misdemeanor crimes of theft, assault, battery, narcotics or
controlled substance possession, substance abuse, or use or
possession of weapons, and has three arrests within the preceding 12
months.
(b) Arrests for infractions or conduct described in Section 601
shall not be utilized in determining whether an individual is
described in subdivision (a). All arrests used in determining
eligibility for selection for program participation that did not
result in a sustained petition shall be certified by the prosecutor
as having been provable.
(c) In applying the selection criteria set forth above, a program
may elect to limit its efforts to persons described in one or more of
the categories listed in subdivision (a), or specified felonies, if
crime statistics demonstrate that the persons so identified present a
particularly serious problem in the county, or that the incidence of
the felonies so specified present a particularly serious problem in
the county.

503. Programs funded under this article shall adopt and pursue the
following policies:
(a) Each participating law enforcement agency shall do all of the
following:
(1) Gather data on identified serious habitual offenders.
(2) Compile data into a usable format for law enforcement,
prosecutors, probation officers, schools, and courts pursuant to an
interagency agreement.
(3) Regularly update data and disseminate data to juvenile justice
system agencies, as needed.
(4) Establish local policies in cooperation with the prosecutor,
the probation officer, schools, and the juvenile court regarding data
collection, arrest, and detention of serious habitual offenders.
(5) Provide support and assistance to other agencies engaged in
the program.
(b) Each participating district attorney's office shall do all of
the following:
(1) File petitions based on the most serious provable offenses of
each arrest of a serious habitual offender.
(2) Use all reasonable prosecutorial efforts to resist the
release, where appropriate, of the serious habitual offender at all
stages of the prosecution.
(3) Seek an admission of guilt on all offenses charged in the
petition against the offender. The only cases in which the prosecutor
may request the court to reduce or dismiss the charges shall be
cases in which the prosecutor decides there is insufficient evidence
to prove the people's case, the testimony of a material witness
cannot be obtained or a reduction or dismissal will not result in a
substantial change in sentence. In those cases, the prosecutor shall
file a written declaration with the court stating the specific
factual and legal basis for such a reduction or dismissal and the
court shall make specific findings on the record of its ruling and
the reasons therefor.
(4) Vertically prosecute all cases involving serious habitual
offenders, whereby the prosecutor who makes the initial filing
decision or appearance on such a case shall perform all subsequent
court appearances on that case through its conclusion, including the
disposition phase.
(5) Make all reasonable prosecutorial efforts to persuade the
court to impose the most appropriate sentence upon such an offender
at the time of disposition. As used in this paragraph, "most
appropriate sentence" means any disposition available to the juvenile
court.
(6) Make all reasonable prosecutorial efforts to reduce the time
between arrest and disposition of the charge.
(7) Act as liaison with the court and other criminal justice
agencies to establish local policies regarding the program and to
ensure interagency cooperation in the planning and implementation of
the program.
(8) Provide support and assistance to other agencies engaged in
the program.
(c) Each participating probation department shall do all of the
following:
(1) Cooperate in gathering data for use by all participating
agencies pursuant to interagency agreement.
(2) Detain minors in custody who meet the detention criteria set
forth in Section 628.
(3) Consider the data relating to serious habitual offenders when
making all decisions regarding the identified individual and include
relevant data in written reports to the court.
(4) Use all reasonable efforts to file violations of probation
pursuant to Section 777 in a timely manner.
(5) Establish local policies in cooperation with law enforcement,
the district attorney, schools, and the juvenile court regarding the
program and provide support and assistance to other agencies engaged
in the program.
(d) Each participating school district shall do all of the
following:
(1) Cooperate in gathering data for use by all participating
agencies pursuant to interagency agreement. School district access to
records and data shall be limited to that information that is
otherwise authorized by law.
(2) Report all crimes that are committed on campus by serious
habitual offenders to law enforcement.
(3) Report all violations of probation committed on campus by
serious habitual offenders to the probation officer or his or her
designee.
(4) Provide educational supervision and services appropriate to
serious habitual offenders attending schools.
(5) Establish local policies in cooperation with law enforcement,
the district attorney, probation and the juvenile court regarding the
program and provide support and assistance to other agencies engaged
in the program.

504. The judge of the juvenile court shall authorize the inspection
of juvenile court records, probation and protective services
records, district attorney records, school records, and law
enforcement records by the participating law enforcement agency
charged with the compilation of the data relating to serious habitual
offenders into the format used by all participating agencies.

505. Within three months of implementation of the program, all
participating agencies in a county shall execute a written
interagency agreement outlining their role in the program, including
the duties they will perform, the duties other agencies will perform
for and with them, and the categories of information to be collected
and the plan for its distribution and use. All participating agencies
will meet no less than once each month to plan, implement, and
refine the operation of the program and to exchange information about
individuals subject to the program or other related topics.

506. Law enforcement agencies and district attorneys participating
in programs funded pursuant to this article shall adopt procedures to
require a check of juvenile criminal history of all adults whose
cases are presented to the district attorney's office for filing. The
juvenile criminal history shall be considered by the district
attorney in the charging decision and establishing the district
attorney's position on the appropriate plea and sentence.