Bill Text: CA AB656 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Assembly Bill 656 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Office of Healthy and Safe Communities.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2019-08-30 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB656 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB656-Introduced.html

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 656

Introduced by Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia

February 15, 2019

An act relating to public safety.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 656, as introduced, Eduardo Garcia. Office of Healthy and Safe Communities.

Existing law authorizes the Office of Emergency Services to expend funds for local domestic violence programs and establishes in that office various programs to address domestic violence. Existing law also requires the Department of Justice to make information relating to gun violence restraining orders available, at the department’s discretion, to certain nonprofit educational institutions or public agencies immediately concerned with the study and prevention of violence, and requires the Board of State and Community Corrections to develop recommendations for the improvement of criminal justice and delinquency and gang prevention activity throughout the state and to consolidate grant funds and programs for those prevention activities.

This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create the Office of Healthy and Safe Communities, under the direction of either the newly appointed surgeon general for this state or the Governor, to provide a comprehensive violence prevention strategy and to promote and expand the use of, and access to, programs for Californians who are exposed to, involved with, or at risk for involvement in violence. The bill would also express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would direct this office to consolidate and administer various violence prevention grant programs and promote the creation of alternatives to incarceration.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would create the Office of Healthy and Safe Communities, under the direction of either the newly appointed surgeon general for this state or the Governor, to provide a comprehensive violence prevention strategy to reduce incidents of violence in this state and to promote and expand the use of, and access to, healing-centered, culturally based, and culturally relevant programs for Californians who are exposed to, involved with, or at risk for involvement in violence. It is the further intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would direct this office to consolidate and administer various violence prevention grant programs and promote the creation of alternatives to incarceration for people involved in street violence and the underground economy, while ensuring that strategies to address the role of trauma and the legacy of sexism, racism, and colonialism are integral parts of that comprehensive violence prevention strategy.