SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) introduced Assembly Bill 1827 – The Kate Tibbitts Act of 2022. The bill would require high-risk parolees to meet the stipulations of their parole agreement and enhance the ability of parole agents to locate high-risk parolees who are transient.
Over 53,000 people in California are on parole, of which an estimated 10,000 are transient or homeless. Many parolees, including high-risk parolees (those convicted of violent crimes or required to register as sex offenders) have limited contact with their parole agent while on parole. Transient parolees are even more likely to have no contact or supervision due to not providing an address to the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.
There are currently over 2,200 people on parole in Sacramento County, of which 370 declared no place of residence upon release.
On September 3, 2021, 61-year-old Kate Tibbitts and her two dogs were brutally murdered and her home set on fire in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood. The suspect in the case was a transient high-risk parolee.
“Kate should be here today, her senseless murder should have never happened,” said Assemblymember Cooper. “We have too many transient parolees that have little or no supervision because we cannot locate them. The Kate Tibbitts Act will fix that.”
Currently, high-risk parolees are required to meet certain conditions such as regularly reporting to a parole agent. If a parolee fails to meet their obligations, the parolee can be remanded into custody. However, high-risk parolees are virtually never remanded under current law because it is optional. Additionally, it is nearly impossible to locate a transient parolee.
AB 1827 – The Kate Tibbitts Act will require all high-risk parolees who declare they are transient to wear a location-monitoring device until an address for the parolee is confirmed. Additionally, it will create a misdemeanor offense when a high-risk parolee knowingly refuses to report to their parole agent and will make the violation subject to up to 6 months in County Jail (not State Prison) upon conviction. Furthermore, AB 1827 grants authority to the courts to not sentence a parolee to county jail but to instead revisit the stipulations of their parole.
“The tragic loss of our sister, Kate Tibbitts, by a vicious high-risk offender was not only traumatic for our entire family, but for the Sacramento Community as a whole,” said Dan Tibbitts. “Painfully, this tragedy could have been avoided if the state had proper protocols in place pertaining to the release of high-risk parolees from jail. Thankfully, Assemblymember Jim Cooper, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, recognizes this failure in public safety and is authoring a bill in the name of our late sister, Kate Tibbitts” added Tibbitts.
AB 1827 will be heard by the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety in the coming months.
