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4.
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| PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE |
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| Information |
| Referral History: |
On September 17, 2019, the Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No. 2019/522 (see Attachment A) to place a moratorium on the assessment and collection of certain criminal justice fees. The moratorium has remained in effect since adoption by the Board and staff has been tracking relevant legislation.
On September 18, 2020, the Governor approved Assembly Bill (AB) 1869 (Criminal Fees). This bill by the Assembly Committee on Budget repeals the authority to collect various criminal justice administrative fees upon conviction or arrest rendering the unpaid balance of these court-imposed costs unenforceable and uncollectible, and would require any portion of a judgment imposing those costs to be vacated. The bill also appropriated $65 million annually for five years to counties to backfill associated revenue losses. The bill expressed the intent of the Legislature to pursue legislation with the Budget Act of 2021 to finalize the funding allocation methodology for distribution to counties. As of April 2021, a funding allocation has not been finalized.
This bill repeals the following administrative fees, effective July 1, 2021:
1) Government Codes 27712 (public defense fee), 27753 (cost of counsel), 29550(c) (criminal justice administration fee), 29550(f) (administrative screening fee and citation processing fee), 29550.1 (criminal justice administration fee), 29550.2 (county booking fee), 29550.3 (city booking fee), and
2) Penal Codes 1203 (interstate compact supervision), 1203.016(g) (adult home detention administrative fee), 1203.018(j)(electronic monitoring administrative fee), 1203.1b (probation department investigation/progress report fee), 1203.1e (parole supervision fee), 1208.2(b) (program administrative fee), 1210.15 (continuous electronic monitoring fee), 3010.8 (parole continuous electronic monitoring fee), 4024.2(e)(work furlough administrative fee), 6266 (work furlough program fee), 987.4 (minor public defense fee), 987.5 (public defense registration fee), and 987.8 (public defense fee).
The administrative fees related to the public defense, probation, criminal justice administration fee, and alternative custody included in the bill were also included in the County's moratorium. |
| Referral Update: |
With AB 1869 going into effect July 1, 2021, the Superior Court is now required to take action on many of these same fines and fees that were included in the moratorium. The public defender fee, probation fees, the sheriff booking fee will be discharged from the Court's accounting system pursuant to AB 1869.
At this time, the Superior Court has requested direction if the County wishes to discharge the outstanding balance of drug diversion fees and victim restitution admin fees, fees affected by the County’s moratorium but not by AB 1869. The drug diversion fee is an administrative fee for cases where the defendant is sentenced to a pre-trial drug diversion program. The victim restitution fee administrative fee is 15% adminstrative fee charged on any restitution ordered but not yet paid at the time of account set-up. Discharging this fee would not impact the collection of victim restitution. Both fees had historically been used to fund the County's subsidy of the Superior Court's operations.
It should be noted that new legislation was introduced this year, Senate Bill 586 (Criminal Fees), which would eliminate a number of other criminal fees, including the drug diversion fee and victim restitution administrative fee. |
| Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s): |
1. RECEIVE an update on the County’s moratorium on certain criminal justice fees and the impacts of AB 1869 (Criminal Fees); and
2. PROVIDE direction to staff regarding the outstanding balances for the Victim Restitution Administrative Fee and Drug Diversion Fee totaling approximately $7.5 million. |
| Fiscal Impact (if any): |
As of April 4, 2021, the outstand balance for all fees included in the Moratorium is approximately $25.9 million. Five (5) of these criminal justice fees will effectively be eliminated by AB 1869 and uncollectible as of July 1, 2021. The FY 2020/2021 and FY 2021/22 budgets did not include any revenue from these fees. The outstanding balance of the fees eliminated by AB 1869 is provided below:
| Fee Description |
Balance Owed |
| Cost of Probation Fee |
$10,577,721 |
| Probation Drug Test Fee |
$1,107,952 |
| Probation Report Fee |
$836,531 |
| Public Defender Fee |
$5,442,391 |
| Sheriff Booking Fee |
$418,669 |
| Total |
$18,383,265 |
The remaining fee balance of approximately $7.5 million is due to the victim restitution administrative fee and drug diversion fee. The FY 2020/2021 and FY 2021/22 budgets did not include any revenue from these fees. The balances for these two fees is as follows:
| Fee Description |
# of Defendants |
Balance Owed |
Average Balance |
Average Time of Since Assessment (Years) |
| Drug Diversion Fee |
1,459 |
$391,001 |
$268 |
6 |
| Victim Restitution Admin Fee |
5,273 |
$7,136,606 |
$1,353 |
12 |
| Total |
6,732 |
$7,527,606 |
$1,118 |
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Since the Superior Court is currently removing numerous fees from their accounting system in response to AB 1869, no addtional costs (system programming, staff time, etc.) would be charged to the County if the County decides to discharge the balances of the Drug Diversion Fees and Victim Restitution Administrative Fees. However, if the balances were to be discharged at a future date, either through County action or new legislation, the County would incur addtional costs (programming costs, Court staff time, etc) to remove the fees from the Court's system. |
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