After rejecting a proposal to stiffen penalties for repeated sex trafficking of minors, a decision that sparked bipartisan outrage in the Capitol, California Democrats rebutted in a high-profile policy committee Thursday.

Senate Bill 14, which would add trafficking of a minor for sex to the list of “serious crimes” under California’s criminal code, was sailing the legislature all year with bipartisan support until the Democrats of the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday amid fears it would punish victims and worsen incarceration rates.

Chaos broke out in the

Democratic Democratic

-controlled legislature after the committee vote, with Republican lawmakers blaming Democrats for not cracking down on child sex trafficking and Democrats blaming Republicans for not addressing the root causes of crime.

“We’re talking about kids being raped every day,” the bill’s author, Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), said in a Wednesday interview with The Times. “It’s just very, very, very disturbing.”

Both Governor Gavin Newsom and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) stepped in with promises to continue working on the proposal. Newsom said Wednesday he called Grove personally about the bill, claiming he was “surprised” by his passing, while Rivas, who is less than two weeks into his leadership role, said it was “something we are addressing and that it’s something.” we’re going to make it right.”

tension

S

reached a boiling point on Thursday as Republicans unsuccessfully tried to force a vote on human trafficking legislation in the full House, an effort that Democrats thwarted. Instead, the bill was withdrawn to the Public Safety Committee, where it passed 6-0 without any debate. Several Democrats who had initially abstained from voting on SB 14 reversed course and voted for him, including committee chair, Member of Parliament Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles).

This is a bill with strong bipartisan support, and protecting victims of child sex trafficking should not be a partisan issue. Today is a victory for every survivor,” Grove said in a post-vote statement.

The current law can send convicted child traffickers to 12 years in prison, or 15 years to life if the crime involves violence, coercion or violence, among other things.

But by making the crime a “serious” misdemeanor subject to California’s “three strikes” law, SB 14 wants to extend prison sentences for repeat traffickers

and make sure they are not released too early

. Three strikes, a holdover from California’s “crackdown on crime” in the 1980s and 1990s, allow prosecutors to serve life sentences for those who commit a third crime and two prior convictions of “serious” or “violent” crimes on their file.

Grove has long argued that repeat sex traffickers are not held accountable in California. She finally made progress this year in her efforts with SB 14, the scope of which she narrowed to appear more left-wing members of the Senate who traditionally oppose measures to increase the prison population. The Senate passed the legislation 40-0

unanimous

vote in May, transmission to the General Assembly.

The Assembly Public Safety Committee initially voted down SB 14 out of concern that it could inadvertently lead to the prosecution of victims forced into a cycle of trafficking while exacerbating racial inequality in California’s prison system.

The controversial panel of mostly Democratic members regularly rejects proposals they believe could usher in a new wave of mass incarceration, preferring instead legislation that promotes rehabilitation and alternatives to prison and uses existing options to hold criminals accountable . Earlier this year, Jones-Sawyer sparked outrage when he shelved several bills to bolster penalties for returning fentanyl dealers, a decision he later reversed.

As fentanyl deaths rise in California, lawmakers are slaying bills that would penalize dealers

“Ultimately, we want to protect these women,” Jones-Sawyer said before the committee rejected SB 14. “And our children, most importantly, we want them to be protected. So what’s going on out there in the world that these minors, women… aren’t protected with existing laws?”

The commission’s course reversal frustrated opponents of the bill, who rejected the argument that California sex traffickers are not punished.

Isa Borgeson,

campaign

a manager of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an advocacy organization opposed to SB 14, said the measure “does nothing to prevent the trafficking of minors or provide them with the healing they need and deserve.”

“The people most vulnerable to being accused of trafficking are themselves victims of trafficking. The charges are being used to leverage their cooperation in the prosecution and their survivor status erased as many are currently incarcerated in both juvenile and as adult prisons,” said assembly member Isaac Bryan (

DLos Angeles

), A

Los Angeles Democrats and

close ally of Riva, wrote on Twitter. Bryan serves on the public safety committee and abstained from voting on SB 14 on both Tuesday and Thursday.

“No one supports the trafficking of children or human beings. That is why existing laws provide for life sentences. We can and must do more to affirm, protect and support survivors through all our social resources, including those outside the criminal justice system,” he wrote .

Those concerns are likely to last for the rest of this year’s legislative session, and could again undermine the bill if Grove doesn’t pass more amendments to reduce some of the bill’s penalties or add language that keeps victims from being punished for their traffickers. crimes.

In a statement, Councilman Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) said he voted in favor of the bill Thursday to give Grove more time to amend it to appeal to the opposition and ensure it would not lead to prosecutions of victims. Zbur initially abstained from voting on SB 14.

“More work needs to be done on the bill before it comes back to ensure that a victim is treated as a victim and not a criminal and that the real perpetrators are brought to justice,” Zbur said.

Senate Bill 14 is expected to be heard in Assembly Appropriations, a key fiscal committee, once lawmakers return from a month-long recess in mid-August. The last day to submit bills this year is September 14.