BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 439 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 7, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY Mark Stone, Chair AB 439 (Bloom) - As Introduced February 23, 2015 As Proposed to be Amended SUBJECT: Protective orders: batterer's program KEY ISSUE: IN ORDER TO BETTER PROTECT VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THEIR CHILDREN, SHOULD A COURT THAT ORDERS A RESTRAINED PARTY, AS PART OF A DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RESTRAINING ORDER, INTO A BATTERER'S PROGRAM BE PERMITTED TO KNOW IF THE RESTRAINED PARTY ACTUALLY ATTENDS THE PROGRAM AS REQUIRED? SYNOPSIS A defendant convicted of criminal domestic violence is required, as a condition of probation, to participate in a batterer's intervention program, and the court and the probation department are notified when the defendant enrolls in the program and if the defendant fails to complete the program. A court issuing a civil domestic violence protective order has the option of ordering a batterer to participate in a batterer's program, but there is no corresponding requirement that the court be informed of batterer's enrollment in, or completion of, the program, as required. This bill, sponsored by the Family Law Section of the AB 439 Page 2 State Bar, seeks to correct that by allowing the court and the victim to receive information about the batterer's participation in the program. This bill is supported by, among others, the California College and University Police Chiefs Association and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. There is no known opposition. SUMMARY: Requires a party subject to restraining order under the Domestic Violence Protection Act (DVPA) who is ordered to participate in a batterer's intervention program to meet certain conditions. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires, effective July 1, 2016, a party restrained by a protective order issued after hearing under the DVPA, who has been ordered by the court to participate in an approved batterer's program to: a) Register for the batterer's program by the deadline set by the court or, if no deadline is ordered, within 30 days from the date the order is issued. b) Upon enrollment, sign all necessary forms to permit release of proof of enrollment, attendance records, and completion or termination reports to the court and the protected party. Allows the court and the protected party to provide the program with contact information in order to receive the restrained party's records in the program. c) Provide the court and the protected party with the name and address of the batterer's program. 2)Requires the Judicial Council, by July 1, 2016, to revise or promulgate forms as necessary to effectuate 1), above. AB 439 Page 3 EXISTING LAW: 1)Authorizes a court, under the DVPA, to issue and enforce a domestic violence restraining order, including an emergency protective order, a temporary restraining order and a permanent restraining order. (Family Code Section 6300 et seq. Unless stated otherwise, all further statutory references are to that code.) 2)After notice and a hearing, a family court may require a restrained party to participate in a batterer's program approved by the probation department, as provided. (Section 6343.) 3)Requires certain probation conditions be imposed when a person found guilty of a domestic-violence-related offense is granted probation. These conditions include successful completion of at least one year of a batterer's program, as defined. Requires that the probation department and the court receive proof of enrollment, as well as notice if the defendant fails to complete the program or is performing unsatisfactorily in the program. (Penal Code Section 1203.097.) 4)Creates a rebuttable presumption that, if a court finds that a party seeking custody of a child has perpetrated domestic violence on the other party or the child within the previous five years, an award of sole or joint custody to that person is detrimental to the child. Provides that when considering whether the presumption may be overcome, the court must consider, among other things, whether the perpetrator successfully completed a batterer's treatment program. (Section 3044.) AB 439 Page 4 FISCAL EFFECT: As currently in print this bill is keyed fiscal. COMMENTS: A defendant convicted of criminal domestic violence is required, as a condition of probation, to participate in a batterer's intervention program, and the court and the probation department are notified when the defendant enrolls in the program and if the defendant fails to complete the program. A court issuing a civil domestic violence protective order has the option of ordering a batterer to participate in a batterer's program, but there is no corresponding requirement that the court be informed of the batterer's enrollment in, or completion of, the program, as required. This bill, sponsored by the Family Law Section of the State Bar, seeks to correct that by allowing the court and the victim to receive information on the batterer's participation in the program. In support of the bill, the author states: Under existing law, the court may order the restrained party in a Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA) matter to attend a 52-week batterer's intervention program. However, courts do not always get accurate information of the restrained party's participation in the program. Confidentiality provisions of batterer's intervention programs prevent them from providing records directly to the court absent a release signed by the restrained party. Batterers' intervention programs have no explicit[] authority to share information with the courts in DVPA matters the way they do in criminal cases under Penal Code section 1203.097(c)(1)(o) and (c)(3)(C). Information about the restrained party's attendance in batterer's intervention programs, including termination, is highly relevant to custody determinations in family court. Currently the court and the protected party must rely on the restrained party to bring in these records. Often, AB 439 Page 5 restrained parties fail to provide records, or may even bring in falsified records. The majority of parties in restraining order cases are self-represented, and may fail to provide this information on purpose or simply because they believe the program provides the information to the court directly. Devastating Effects of Domestic Violence on Children and Families: Domestic violence is a serious criminal justice and public health problem most often perpetrated against women. (Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey, U.S. Department of Justice (2001).) Prevalence of domestic violence at the national level ranges from 960,000 to three million women each year who are physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends. While the numbers are staggering, they only include those cases of reported domestic violence. In fact, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey of women's health, nearly 31 percent of American women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. (Health Concerns Across a Woman's Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women's Health, The Commonwealth Fund (May 1999).) Domestic violence continues to be a significant problem in California. In 2005, the Attorney General's Task Force on Domestic Violence reported that: The health consequences of physical and psychological domestic violence can be significant and long lasting, for both victims and their children. . . . A study by the California Department of Health Services of women's health issues found that nearly six percent of women, or about 620,000 women per year, experienced violence or physical abuse by their intimate partners. Women living in households where children are present experienced domestic violence at much higher rates than women living in AB 439 Page 6 households without children: domestic violence occurred in more than 436,000 households per year in which children were present, potentially exposing approximately 916,000 children to violence in their homes every year. (Report to the California Attorney General from the Task Force on Local Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence, Keeping the Promise: Victim Safety and Batterer Accountability (June 2005) (footnotes omitted).) Batterer's Intervention Programs: Since 1994, California has required that a defendant convicted of criminal domestic violence must, as a condition of probation, participate in a batterer's intervention program. Batterers' programs are designed to stop domestic violence by holding batterers accountable and providing them with strategies to stop the abuse through lectures, classes, group discussions and counseling. A 2006 evaluation of batterers' programs by the State Auditor revealed that only half of batterers ordered into intervention programs ever completed the programs and that as many as a quarter never even enrolled in the programs in the first place, with little consequence. (California State Auditor, Batterer Intervention Programs: County Probation Departments Could Improve Their Compliance With State Law, but Progress in Batterer Accountability Also Depends on the Courts (Nov. 2006).) Since that time, steps have been taken to improve accountability on the criminal side, but there remains no statutorily required accountability on the civil side. Under Current Law, A Batterer Could Not Complete a Court-Ordered Intervention Program, But Neither the Court nor the Victim Would AB 439 Page 7 Necessarily Know, Which Could Impact Both the Victim's Safety and Ongoing Custody Disputes: A family court today, issuing a domestic violence protective order, can order the restrained party to participate in an approved batterer's program, but there is no requirement that the court, or the protected party, be informed of enrollment in, or completion of, the program. The restrained party's enrollment in, attendance at, and completion of a court-ordered batterer's intervention program is relevant to the parties' ongoing disputes. It is certainly important to ensure that the person complied with the court order. A batterer who knows that his or her completion of the program is being tracked may be more likely to comply with the court order. Moreover, successful completion of the batterer's program should lead to reduced abuse both for the restrained party and for others as well. Additionally, if the parties have children together, completion of a batterer's program is very relevant for any ongoing custody disputes. There is a rebuttable presumption against custody to a parent who has committed domestic violence against the other parent or the child within the previous five years. The presumption may be overcome if, among other things, the perpetrator has successfully completed a batterer's treatment program. Thus, both the court and the protected party should be able to independently determine whether such a program was successfully completed. This bill does just that. The bill also creates a new requirement that the batterer enroll in a court-ordered program within the deadline set by the court or, if no deadline is ordered, within 30 days from the date the order is issued. This provision makes clear to the restrained party when he or she must comply with the court order and helps ensure that timely enrollment will occur. Given that most parties in domestic violence cases are unrepresented, this bill rightly requires the Judicial Council to prepare forms as necessary so that the restrained party understands what is required of him or her and the protected party knows how to AB 439 Page 8 obtain attendance and completion information from the batterer's program. ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The Family Law Section of the State Bar writes: Under existing law, the victim of domestic violence does not have a way of monitoring the restrained party's enrollment and progress in a court ordered batterer's program. The victim and his or her attorney does not have any way of ensuring that the restrained party has timely enrolled and completed the program successfully. Due to confidentiality, the program will not release confirmation of the restrained party's enrollment, attendance and either successful completion or termination of the program. And yet, this information is shared in a criminal domestic violence case. This information is necessary and important as it enables the court and the victim to ascertain if the restrained party is taking steps to address the issues and actions that led to the issuance of a restraining order, and whether the restrained party is making progress in the program. Such information is valuable to the court and the victim as it can provide the court with information to protect the victim and allow the court to continue monitoring the restrained party's progress and any threat to the victim, as well as address any continued restrictions or modifications to a parenting plan, to ensure the protection of the minor children. AB 439 would create a mandated consistency throughout the courts to set a deadline date for enrollment of no later than 30 days and allow the victim and his or her attorney to easily monitor the restrained party through the program to determine whether further court intervention is needed or to flag the court to the restrained party's failure to enroll, attend or successfully complete the program. AB 439 Page 9 REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support Family Law Section of the State Bar (sponsor) California College and University Police Chiefs Association California Partnership to End Domestic Violence Many individuals Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by:Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 AB 439 Page 10