THESE ARE SOME OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA LAWS COME JAN 1 2014

OFF THE WIRE
Prison Reform: California is under a federal court order to either expand our prison capacity by January of next year or release as many as 10,000 prisoners, due to overcrowding. Under the Governor's 2009 realignment program, most non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offender prisoners have already been transferred to local custody at the county level. The Assembly has refused to release any serious offenders onto the streets of our community and instead has taken a two-step alternative approach.

The first step is to secure additional capacity through 2017. In the meantime, we allocated $100 million to the state's probation departments to develop plans for evidence-based alternatives to incarceration. Speaker Pérez has also appointed a Select Committee on Prison Overcrowding to develop recommendations for long-term solutions. In addition, the state continues to work with the parties to develop a more workable immediate approach.

Gun Safety: The Aurora and Newtown mass shootings prompted legislators to introduce a number of gun safety bills. Of these, the Governor signed AB 711 which will gradually phase out the use of lead ammunition for hunting in California, a known hazard to wildlife and the environment. The Governor also signed legislation ensuring that .50 caliber sniper rifles are kept off of California streets, as well as AB 1131 and SB 127, which restrict the ability of mentally unstable people to purchase or possess guns.

Governor Brown also vetoed several gun-related bills, including Senator Steinberg's SB 347 which would have banned all semi-automatic rifles with a detachable magazine, and SB 299 which would have penalized gun owners when they fail to report a lost or stolen firearm.

tHESE ARE SOME OF THE NEW cALIFORNIA LAWS COME JAN 1