"California adopts 'fair sentencing' drug law"

[applegrove]

California adopts 'fair sentencing' drug law

by Al Jazeera Staff

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/29/california-drug-sentencing.html

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California has enacted legislation that will eliminate sentencing disparities between crack and cocaine possession convictions, a disparity that critics contended placed a disproportionate burden on minorities and amounted to racial discrimination in the state’s prison system.

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday signed on the California Fair Sentencing Act, the text of which asserts, "To mete out unequal punishment for the same crime (e.g., possession for sale of a particular form of cocaine), is wholly and cruelly unjust.”

The legislation was written and introduced by Sen. Holly Mitchell, a California senate Democrat from Los Angeles who also chairs the California Legislative Black Caucus.

“We must break the drug-driven cycle of arrest, lock-up, unemployability and re-arrest,” said Mitchell in a statement. “The law isn’t supposed to be a pipeline that disproportionately channels the young, urban and unemployed into jail and joblessness.”




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[pinto]

1. Plus, we have Prop. 47 up for a vote.

Criminal Sentences, Misdemeanor Penalties, Initiative Statute.

* Requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for certain drug possession offenses.

* Requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for the following crimes when amount involved is $950 or less: theft, receiving stolen property, forging/writing bad checks.

* Allows felony sentence for these offenses if person has previous convictions for crimes such as rape, murder, child molestation or registered sex offender.

* Requires re-sentencing for persons serving felony sentences for these offenses unless court finds unreasonable public safety risk.

* Applies savings to mental health and drug treatment programs, K-12 schools and crime victims.