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<ns0:Id>20250AB__243498AMD</ns0:Id>
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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-02-20</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-03-19</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Bonta</ns0:AuthorText>
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<ns0:Legislator>
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<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Bonta</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title> An act to add Sections 6402.5 and 6403 to the Penal Code, relating to corrections.</ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>corrections</ns0:RelatingClause>
<ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:Subject>Inmates: visitation.</ns0:Subject>
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<ns0:DigestText>
<html:p>Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, when amending or adopting regulations that may impact the visitation of inmates, to recognize and consider the value of visiting as a means to improve prison safety, the important role of inmate visitation in maintaining connection with family and community, and the role of inmate visitation in preparing for successful release.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would prohibit a facility, as defined, from denying visitation on the basis of specified characteristics or factors, including, among others, sex, race, and criminal history. The bill would require a facility to allow all visits with an incarcerated person to be contact visits unless the incarcerated person is housed in a restricted housing unit, as
specified. The bill would prohibit a facility from denying, revoking, suspending, limiting, or interfering with visitation privileges for a disciplinary matter or rule violation unrelated to visitation. The bill would require facility staff to take specified actions with regard to correctable issues with a visitation, including, among other things, allowing the visitor a reasonable opportunity to correct the issue and return to visiting up to one hour before the end of the visiting period. The bill would, if a visitor has traveled more than 100 miles to attend a visit, or has not visited within 30 days, require a credible and documented security threat for the visit to be denied by the facility.</html:p>
<html:p>The bill would prohibit a facility from searching visitors without their voluntary, informed, and written consent. The bill would authorize a facility to respond to refusal of that search only with denial of contact visiting for that day, and would require the facility to
offer a noncontact visit on the same day. The bill would require other restrictions and procedures for searches of visitors, as specified. The bill would require data regarding searches, alerts, and resulting denials to be collected and published annually by the department in aggregate form.</html:p>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
<ns0:BillSection id="id_35B4CBEF-1629-4F83-838C-51B30B03CCE7">
<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Visitor Protections and Safety Act.</html:p>
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<ns0:BillSection id="id_5D96A63E-60FE-4C32-8F1A-98673DA78F4A">
<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Women, particularly Black women, are the primary visitors of incarcerated people. National research shows that one in 4 women and one in 2 Black women have a family member in prison.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Essie Justice Group’s “Because She’s Powerful: The Political Isolation and Resistance of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones,” also underscored that the burden of maintaining family connections under these conditions falls overwhelmingly on
women, who already face disproportionate economic, emotional, and caregiving responsibilities when their loved ones are incarcerated.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Moreover, the report found that 70% of women are the primary support for at least one of their incarcerated loved ones; 55% of women see their loved ones only monthly or a few times a year, and over one-quarter never see their incarcerated loved one; and more than 80% of women listed at least one person, incarcerated or not, who depends on them for a basic need.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
California’s visitation rules are not set in statute and vary widely by facility. Title 15 regulations provide little procedural guidance and almost no enforceable rights for visitors. As a result, visitors routinely experience arbitrary denials, last-minute cancellations after traveling long distances, humiliating searches, harassment by staff, and the absence of any meaningful
appeals process.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
These harms are routinely justified under a broad and unchecked invocation of “safety.” In practice, this has created an environment where facility staff wield extraordinary discretion with no guardrails, no transparency, and no accountability.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Women visitors report being subjected to sexual harassment, degrading searches, intimidation, and retaliation for asserting basic dignity. Children are turned away without explanation. Families lose visits after driving hundreds of miles, often at great financial and emotional cost.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(g)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Visitation is not a luxury. It is a public safety, dignity, gender justice, and family connection issue.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(h)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The Legislature has repeatedly acknowledged the importance of in-person visitation but has not
yet created a comprehensive statutory framework that protects visitors themselves. This act is designed to fill that gap.
</html:p>
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<ns0:Num>SEC. 3.</ns0:Num>
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Section 6402.5 is added to the
<ns0:DocName>Penal Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:Num>6402.5.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>
(a)
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For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
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“Credible security threat” means a specific, articulable, and documented facts that establish a reasonable belief that a visitor or incarcerated person presents an immediate and identifiable risk of introducing contraband, facilitating escape, or causing physical harm within the facility. A credible security threat shall be based on objective information, including reliable intelligence, direct observation, or verified evidence, and shall not be based solely on generalized safety concerns, institutional convenience, anonymous or uncorroborated allegations, personal characteristics, protected traits, prior criminal history unrelated to institutional safety, refusal to
consent to a voluntary search, or the mere existence of a past rule violation.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Facility” means any institution operated by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the purposes of detention.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
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“Visit” and “visitation” means an in-person visit conducted at a facility during established visiting hours.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall not deny, revoke, limit, or interfere with visitation based on any of the following characteristics, whether actual or perceived, of a person in custody or a prospective visitor:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Sex.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Sexual orientation.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Race.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Age.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(5)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Nationality.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(6)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Political beliefs.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(7)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Religious beliefs and expression.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(8)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Criminal record.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(9)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Pending criminal or civil case.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(10)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Lack of family relationship.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(11)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Gender, including gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior or expression.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(12)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Disability.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(13)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Hair color, texture, or protective hairstyles, including, but not limited to, tightly coiled, curly, wavy, or Afro-textured hair, braids,
locs, twists, Bantu knots, cornrows, Afros, and other natural hair styling methods.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(14)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Body type, body size, weight, height, or other physical characteristics.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall allow all visits with an incarcerated person to be contact visits unless the incarcerated person is housed in a restricted housing unit.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility may limit an incarcerated person housed in a restricted housing unit to noncontact visits only for the duration of that placement.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall restore contact visiting immediately upon the incarcerated person’s return to a nonrestricted housing unit.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall not deny, revoke, suspend, limit, or interfere with
visiting privileges for a disciplinary matter or rule violation unrelated to visitation.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall review any limitation, denial, or suspension of visitation imposed prior to January 1, 2027, at the incarcerated person’s next annual classification review and modify it as necessary to conform to this section.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall not deny visitors entry based on correctable issues, including, but not limited to, dress code violations, excess number of accompanying minors, or missing documentation. For correctable issues, staff shall do all of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Provide clear and specific guidance on how to remedy the issue in writing.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Allow the visitor a reasonable opportunity to correct the issue and return to visiting up to one hour
before the end of the visiting period.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Permit the visit to proceed once the issue is resolved.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Offer reasonable alternatives, including a noncontact visit, when correction is not possible that day.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(g)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
If a visit is denied on the day of visiting for a noncorrectable issue, the facility shall provide written documentation to the visitor on the same day stating:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The specific reason for denial.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
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The length of the denial and explaining how to appeal.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Information regarding the right to appeal and how to appeal.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(h)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
If a visitor has traveled more
than 100 miles to attend a visit, or has not visited within 30 days, a facility may deny the visit only if there is a credible and documented security threat. The facility may not deny a visit under this subdivision for correctable issues described in subdivision (f).
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<ns0:Num>SEC. 4.</ns0:Num>
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Section 6403 is added to the
<ns0:DocName>Penal Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:Num>6403.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_3F15E9DA-7B09-4621-AFA2-320D26F52932">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Assistive device” means mobility aids designed to assist mobility and safety for individuals with disabilities, including, but not limited to, manual and electric wheelchairs, walkers, rollators, mobility scooters, canes, and crutches.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Credible security threat” means a specific, articulable, and documented facts that establish a reasonable belief that a visitor or incarcerated person presents an immediate and identifiable risk of introducing contraband, facilitating escape, or causing physical harm within the facility. A credible security threat shall be based on objective information, including
reliable intelligence, direct observation, or verified evidence, and shall not be based solely on generalized safety concerns, institutional convenience, anonymous or uncorroborated allegations, personal characteristics, protected traits, prior criminal history unrelated to institutional safety, refusal to consent to a voluntary search, or the mere existence of a past rule violation.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Facility” means any institution operated by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the purposes of detention.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Routine screening” means a standardized, minimally intrusive inspection process applied uniformly to all visitors as a condition of entry, for the limited purpose of detecting weapons or contraband. Routine screening shall consist only of passage through a walk-through metal detector or hand-held metal detection wand, visual inspection of personal property, or screening
by electronic detection equipment applied in the same manner to all visitors.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(5)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Strip search,” “visual body cavity search,” and “physical body cavity search” have the same meaning as defined in Section 4030.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(6)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Visit” and “visitation” means an in-person visit conducted at a facility during established visiting hours.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility may subject any person coming onto the property to routine screening or a voluntary search to ensure facility security and prevent the introduction or removal of contraband.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall not search visitors without their voluntary, informed, and written consent unless facility officials possess a court-issued warrant or the individual is lawfully detained pursuant to other law.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall give visitors information regarding their right to refuse a voluntary search that is translated into the top five most commonly spoken languages in California according to the most recently completed census before providing their written consent to the search.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall not forcibly search any visitor who does not consent to a search. If a person refuses a voluntary search pursuant to this subdivision, the facility may only deny contact visiting for that day. The facility shall offer a noncontact visit on the same day, if space is available, unless there is an immediate and credible security threat.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(5)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall not punish refusal to consent to a search with suspension, termination, or future restriction of visitation privileges, nor shall the refusal to consent to a search be
recorded as misconduct in any permanent record.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(6)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
For any visitor who is denied visitation or has visitation restricted due to failing a search or refusing to consent to a search shall, at the time of that denial, the facility shall issue a written notice detailing what occurred, the date, time, who was present, and the underlying rationale given to the visitor for the denial or restriction.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall conduct all searches in the least intrusive manner reasonably available and shall limit searches to what is strictly necessary to address the specific security concern.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Clothed body searches conducted by the facility shall consist of a visual inspection and use of a hand-held wand, and the facility shall prohibit physical contact by staff.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A facility shall conduct unclothed body searches only after providing notice that the search is voluntary, obtaining the visitor’s written consent, and with reasonable suspicion that contraband is concealed on the body and no less intrusive means are available. The facility shall require written supervisory approval for unclothed searches documenting the specific facts supporting reasonable suspicion. They shall be conducted in a private setting by staff of the same gender as the visitor, with no physical contact.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall not conduct strip searches, body cavity searches, and any search involving physical intrusion without a court-issued warrant for the search.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(5)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Except as specified in subparagraph (B), the department shall not conduct strip searches, visual body cavity
searches, and physical body cavity searches of visitors who are under 18 years of age.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
If the department has probable cause and obtains a warrant to search, the department may conduct strip searches of visitors who are under 18 years of age. If there is probable cause that the visitor is attempting to introduce contraband, unauthorized substances, or other unauthorized items into the institution, the department shall notify the visitor and their parent or guardian in writing, and the department shall receive written consent from the visitor and their parent or guardian prior to conducting the search. If probable cause exists but the visitor and their parent or guardian do not consent to the visitor being searched, the department may offer a noncontact visit, if feasible, or deny the visit.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
If a visitor is subjected to a search exceeding the
standard screening applied to all visitors, the facility shall provide written notice on the same day stating the specific reason for the search and the name and title of the approving official.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall log all searches beyond routine screening in a manner accessible for review through the visitation appeals process.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The department shall annually collect and publish data regarding searches, alerts, and resulting denials in aggregate form to ensure transparency and guard against discriminatory enforcement.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall make all written notices and documentation related to searches of visitors available in the five most common languages spoken in California according to the most recent census.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The
facility shall permit all visitors who cannot clear a metal detector due to a medically implanted or prosthetic device to present written verification from a licensed health care provider describing the device and its location.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall not require renewal of that verification for permanent devices unless there is a material change in the device.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall not require visitors who use wheelchairs or assistive devices to transfer to a facility wheelchair. The facility shall permit visitors to remain in their own wheelchair while the device is inspected using the least intrusive means available.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall not punish failure to present documentation under this subdivision with permanent suspension of visitation, but the facility may require alternative screening measures or a
noncontact visit for that day.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall require that all searches be conducted professionally, respectfully, and without harassment, intimidation, or retaliatory intent.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall prohibit retaliatory searches, searches based on personal characteristics unrelated to safety, and degrading or sexualized comments.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The facility shall inform visitors of their right to file a complaint and shall prohibit retaliation for filing complaints.
</html:p>
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