Tougher sentencing for trafficking minors poised to move forward in California – By Kenneth Schrupp (The Center Square) / Aug 31, 2023
(The Center Square) – Though SB 14, a bill to make trafficking minors a “serious felony” in California that would qualify under the state’s “three strikes” law, was placed in suspense in mid-August, it now has a chance to make it to a State Assembly general floor vote if members of the 16-member Assembly Appropriations Committee opt to allow the bill to move forward during their September 1 session.
SB 14 had been placed into the suspense file, a procedure committee leaders can use to quash a bill if it has a fiscal impact of more than $150,000, and must be removed from the suspense file by September 1 to have any chance at becoming law this year. Unanimously passed in the California Senate, SB 14 is supported by a broad coalition ranging from law enforcement, human rights organizations, faith groups, municipalities, corporations such as UPS, and even California Governor Gavin Newsom.
While the bill failed its first vote on the California Assembly Public Safety Committee due to Assembly Majority Leader Isaac Bryan’s (D-Los Angeles) concerns that “longer sentences…increase our investment in systems of harm and subjugation at the expense of the investments that the communities need to not have this problem to begin with,” the bill readily passed on its second vote after the failure of its first vote generated national attention from prominent Democrats and Republicans alike.
