The U.S is the leader in the world for incarcerated persons, we hold 5% of the world and 25% of that population is behind bars. Let that sink in. Over the last 40 years the number of incarcerations have increased due to drug policy changes. Last year 88% of people incarcerated for simple drug possession. Up until last year prisons have been built at least one per year over the past 23 years (talk about an investment $$$) while there has been only one university built since then. 60% of people arent sentenced in California but stay in jail because they can't pay their bail.
AB109: Is a court order by the Supreme Court that ordered California to reduce their prison population because it found that it was violating the 8th amendment with how many people were being incarcerated.
AB109: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/realignment/docs/realignment-fact-sheet.pdf
8th amendment: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Some more text:
In brief, AB 109 (and AB 117, a companion bill) altered both sentencing and post-prison supervision for the newly statutorily classified “non-serious, non-violent, non-sex” offenders. While the legislation is comprehensive and complex, three major groups are affected by Realignment. First, felony offenders who have never been convicted of a “serious” or “violent” crime or an aggravated white collar crime and are not required to register as sex offenders (colloquially referred to as the “triple-nons”) will now serve their sentences in local custody. Second, released prisoners whose current commitment offense qualifies them as “triple-non” offenders are diverted to the supervision of county probation departments under “Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS).” Third, if persons on PRCS violate the technical conditions of their supervision (rather than committing a new crime), they can no longer be returned to State prison but must be sanctioned in local (county) jail or community alternatives, including house arrest, drug treatment, or flash incarceration.
From:
http://www.law.stanford.edu/organizations/programs-and-centers/stanford-criminal-justice-center-scjc/california-realignment
In response to a court order to reduce the population in its seriously overcrowded prisons, California began implementing a major new corrections realignment plan in October 2011.The plan shifts responsibility for a substantial number of non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual felony offenders from the state to its 58 counties. Ultimately, this reform is projected to reallocate about 30,000 low-risk felons from state prisons to either county jails or an alternative form of community corrections. Additionally, county probation departments
will take on the supervision of roughly 60,000 additional offenders on Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS). Although the counties receive funding to cover the cost of supervising these felons, the state has not established any statewide standards, nor provided any funding, for evaluating county policies and practices
in managing this new program.
From: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_812MLR.pdf
Okay I really don't have the time to go into detail with this but hopefully you can check out these sources.
Another important thing is PROP 36:
- Revises the three strikes law to impose life sentence only when the new felony conviction is "serious or violent."
- Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving life sentences if their third strike conviction was not serious or violent and if the judge determines that the re-sentence does not pose unreasonable risk to public safety.
- Continues to impose a life sentence penalty if the third strike conviction was for "certain non-serious, non-violent sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession."
- Maintains the life sentence penalty for felons with "non-serious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were for rape, murder, or child molestation."
And I'm pasting this because thats essentially what the speaker said is that although many inmates qualify to be released from life sentence if their last crime was a petty one that these inmates have to get out and go to reentry programs. These programs give the inmates the resources and help to get back into society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Reentry_Program
Proposition 36:
One impact of the approval of Proposition 36 was that the approximately 3,000 convicted felons who were as of November 2012 serving life terms under the Three Strikes law, whose third strike conviction was for a nonviolent crime, became eligible to petition the court for a new, reduced, sentence.[2] Some estimates were that reducing the sentences of these current prisoners could result in saving the state somewhere between $150 to $200 million a year.[3]
Altogether, about 8,800 prisoners are currently serving life terms in California prisons under the 1994 law.[4]
24 states have a "Three Strikes"-type law.[4]
Aftermath:
Five months after the proposition was approved, the Associated Press reported that enforcement of the three-strikes law change had been carried out unequally between counties. For instance, in San Bernardino County, "33 percent of the 291 Three Strikes inmates [had] been granted release under Proposition 36." However, in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, "just 6 percent of the nearly 1,300 eligible inmates [had] had their sentences reduced." The statewide average was at 16 percent at that time.but there is not enough money allocated (funding) by the state to these programs so even though there are inmates that are serving life prison sentences which they can be released they can't because the reentry programs and limited on space and funding.
Books I suggest you read: The New Jim Crow.
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