ROCA trumps Homeless Hate Crime legislation

Last January, California Senator Darrell Steinberg (Dem) introduced SB 122, a bill that would define random, violent attacks against homeless individuals as hate crimes – meaning that their perpetrators would face stiffer penalties and longer jail time. The bill was heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee in April. For the moment, its status in limbo, along with many other similar bills, due to a policy change in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

As of January last year, Senator Romero (Dem), chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, introduced the Receivership Overcrowding Crisis Aggravation (ROCA) policy, which put on hold all state bills that would add to and aggravate California's overcrowded prison crisis. The move angered California Republicans, who had introduced most of the bills that have been affected.

SB 122, which would add a year or so to the sentences of violent offenders who attack the homeless, was among the bills shelved until at least January 2008, when the ROCA policy will be evaluated.

I spoke with Aaron Carruthers, Legislative Director for Senator Darrell Steinberg, about the fate of the bill.

"Senator Steinberg is still committed to the issue," he said, adding that the senator would likely bring it up again next year.

For the moment, however, the bill has been shelved. The committee found that SB 122 "will impose additional sentences against people convicted of crimes against a person because he or she is homeless and thus will aggravate the prison and jail overcrowding crisis..."

– Eric Zassenhaus