Assembly Public Safety committee advances measures on ketamine transport, judicial threats, survivor relief, prison work and other reforms

The Assembly Standing Committee on Public Safety voted Wednesday to advance multiple bills to the Appropriations Committee after hearings that combined technical fixes, contested policy choices and extended public testimony.

Among the measures the committee moved were AB 837 (Davies), a narrow expansion targeting persons who transport ketamine into California for illegal distribution; AB 352 (Pacheco), creating an aggravating factor for criminal threats against judges and court commissioners; AB 938 (Bonta), expanding vacatur and an affirmative defense for survivors of human trafficking and severe domestic or sexual violence; AB 475 (Wilson), requiring work assignments for incarcerated individuals be voluntary; AB 704 (Lowenthal), allowing certain young-adult convictions to be sealed and destroyed; AB 812 (Lowenthal), creating a pathway for resentencing recommendations for incarcerated firefighters; AB 701 (Ortega), directing a statewide study of segregated confinement; AB 800 (Ortega), seeking to limit prison visiting-room food prices; and AB 572 (Kalra), which would require disclosure and limits on use of family statements after a person is killed or seriously injured by law enforcement. Most measures were approved "passed as amended to the Appropriations Committee" on party-line and mixed votes recorded on the roll calls.

Why this matters

Committee members framed the package as a mix of public-safety initiatives and criminal-justice reforms. Supporters argued the bills either close legal loopholes (AB 837), protect public officials (AB 352) or remove collateral barriers for people harmed by violence (AB 938, AB 704). Opponents—ranging from public-defense offices and civil-rights groups to county district attorneys, police associations and some private vendors—raised concerns about unintended consequences: worsening public-health outcomes, prosecutorial discovery burdens, victims’ interests in prosecutions, the economic viability of vendor programs, and preservation of investigatory tools in officer-involved incidents.

Key measures and committee debate

AB 837 (Davies) — ketamine transport Assemblymember Sharon Davies presented AB 837 as a narrowly tailored bill to close a 1991 statutory gap allowing nonmedical persons to transport ketamine into California and to give courts discretion under Penal Code section 1170 for sentencing. Davies said she would accept committee amendments and that "the amendments agreed to by the chair ... limits the bill to just the trafficker. We do not touch the seller or the buyer." Robert Brown of the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office testified for the California District Attorneys Association in support, calling ketamine a powerful anesthetic and warning against it becoming an alternative to fentanyl.

Opponents included Dr. Ricky Bluthenthal (USC) and representatives of Drug Policy Alliance and public-defender offices, who testified that increased criminal penalties historically have little effect on supply and can increase harms and reduce access to health services. Dr. Bluthenthal testified, "increased penalties do more harm than good and in fact there's little evidence of positive outcomes but well documented evidence of bad outcomes." The committee voted to pass AB 837 as amended to Appropriations.

AB 352 (Pacheco) — threats against judges Assemblymember Alex…