CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2763

Introduced by Assembly Member Essayli

February 15, 2024

An act to add Section 8310.4 to the Government Code, and to amend Section 2068 of the Penal Code, relating to data collection.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2763, as introduced, Essayli. State agencies: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: demographic data: Middle Eastern and North African groups.
Existing law requires a state agency, board, or commission that directly or by contract collects demographic data as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians to use separate collection categories and tabulations for each major Asian group and each major Pacific Islander group, as specified. Existing law requires these state entities to include the data in every demographic report on ancestry or ethnic origins of Californians by these state entities published or released on or after July 1, 2012. Existing law further requires these state agencies to make the collected data available to the public pursuant to state and federal law, except for personal identifying information, which existing law deems confidential.
This bill would require these state entities to use separate collection categories and tabulations for the Middle Eastern and North African group, as specified. The bill would require these state entities to include the data in every demographic report on ancestry or ethnic origins of California by these state entities published or released on or after January 1, 2026. The bill would require these state entities to make the data available to the public, except as specified, including personal identifying information, which the bill would deem confidential. The bill would require these state entities to update their data collection to reflect additional Middle Eastern and North African groups as they are reported by the United States Census Bureau, as specified.
Existing law establishes the state prisons under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Existing law requires the department to collect voluntary self-identification demographic data on the race and ethnic origin of the people admitted, in custody, and released and paroled, as specified. Existing law requires the department to publish monthly the data, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, as specified. Existing law also requires the data be available on the department’s internet website, except for personally identifying information, which existing law deems confidential.
The bill would require the department to additionally collect demographic data for certain groups, including, among others, the Middle Eastern, North African, and Transnational Middle Eastern and North African groups.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 8310.4 is added to the Government Code, to read:

8310.4.
 (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited as, the Middle Eastern and North African inclusion Act.
(b) A state agency, board, or commission that directly or by contract collects demographic data as to the ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians shall use separate collection categories for the Middle Eastern and North African group in the provided forms that offer respondents the option of selecting one or more ethnic or racial designations or languages and tabulations.
(c) A state agency, board, or commission shall do all of the following with the data collected pursuant to subdivision (b):
(1) Include the data in every demographic report on ancestry or ethnic origins of Californians by the state agency, board, or commission published or released on or after January 1, 2026.
(2) Make the data available to the public in accordance with state and federal law, including by posting the data on the internet website of the state agency, board, or commission, except for personal identifying information, which shall be deemed confidential and shall not be disclosed.
(A) A state agency, board, or commission shall not make available to the public data that would permit the identification of individuals. The state agencies, boards, or commissions may, to prevent the identification of individuals, aggregate data categories at a state, county, city, census tract, or ZIP Code level to facilitate comparisons and identify disparities.
(B) A state agency, board, or commission shall not make available to the public data that would result in statistical unreliability.
(d) Within 18 months after a decennial United States Census is released to the public, a state agency, board, or commission shall update its data collection to reflect the additional Middle Eastern and North African groups as they are reported by the United States Census Bureau.
(e) For the purposes of this section, “Middle Eastern and North African” means any of the following:
(1) A major Middle Eastern group, including, but not limited to, Afghan, Bahraini, Emirati, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Omani, Palestinian, Qatari, Saudi Arabian, Syrian, Turkish, and Yemeni.
(2) A major North African group, including, but not limited to, Algerian, Djiboutian, Egyptian, Libyan, Mauritanian, Moroccan, Sudanese, and Tunisian.
(3) A major transnational Middle Eastern and North African group, including, but not limited to, Amazigh or Berber, Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Circassian, Kurdish.

SEC. 2.

 Section 2068 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

2068.
 (a) The department Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall collect voluntary self-identification information pertaining to race or ethnic origin of people admitted, in custody, and released and paroled, which shall include, but not be limited to, Afghan, Algerian, Amazigh or Berber, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Armenian, Assyrian, Bahraini, Bangladeshi, Black, Cambodian, Chaldean, Chinese, Circassian, Colombian, Cuban, Djiboutian, Egyptian, Emirati, Fijian, Filipino, Guamanian or Chamorro, Guatemalan, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, Jordanian, Kurdish, Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Libyan, Mauritanian, Moroccan, Native Hawaiian, Omani, Other Hispanic Not Listed, Other Middle Eastern Not Listed, Other North African Not Listed, Other Transnational Middle Eastern and North African Not Listed, Palestinian, Qatari, Saudi Arabian, Sudanese, Syrian, Tunisian, Turkish, Yemeni, Hmong, Indian, Indonesian, Jamaican, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Malaysian, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Other, Other Asian Not Listed, Other Pacific Islander Not Listed, Pakistani, Puerto Rican, Salvadorian, Samoan, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, Thai, Tongan, Unknown, Vietnamese, and White. Based on that voluntary self-identification information, the department shall prepare and publish monthly demographic data pertaining to the race or ethnic origin of people admitted, in custody, and released and paroled, disaggregated by the same race and ethnicity categories used by the department for the purpose of voluntary self-identification information.
(b) Starting January 1, 2025, the data, except for personally identifying information, which shall be deemed confidential, shall be publicly available on the department’s internet website via the Offender Data Points dashboard.
(c) If the population number of any race or ethnicity category is under 50, the department shall only reference, in the published data, those numbers as “fewer than 50” in order to protect personally identifying information.

SEC. 3.

 The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of this act, which adds Section 8310.4 to the Government Code, and Section 2 of this act, which amends Section 2068 of the Penal Code, imposes a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that interest:
In order to protect the privacy of California residents, while also gathering and publicizing useful demographic data, it is necessary that personal identifying information remain confidential.