California criminal justice panel eyes ‘three strikes’ law changes in 2022
SACRAMENTO — For more than a year, a seven-person California commission has been quietly spearheading a massive effort to overhaul the thicket of criminal laws that make up the state penal code.
Its ideas for 2022 are ambitious, including an eventual end to the state’s controversial “three strikes” law and changes to lifetime prison sentences without the possibility of parole.
“I think there are a great number of injustices,” said Michael Romano, the chairman of the state Committee on Revision of the Penal Code and a Stanford Law School lecturer. “And I think we can make our state even safer and more fair by looking at some of the details.”
The committee — comprising lawmakers, criminal law scholars and former federal and state judges appointed by the governor and legislative leaders — was formed in 2020 to closely examine California’s incarceration rates and make policy recommendations to lower them.
In broad terms, the advisory panel aims to provide lawmakers with ideas that move California toward more diversion and rehabilitation programs and away from the tough-on-crime policies of decades past. Members have encouraged the state Board of Parole Hearings to grant more prisoner releases and have characterized some sentence enhancements as too harsh. They favor mental health treatment in lieu of incarceration and have endorsed ending California’s death penalty.
Its work resulted in six laws that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2021 out of the 10 recommendations the committee submitted. The new laws include limiting sentence enhancements for gang affiliation and ending mandatory sentence minimums for nonviolent drug offenses.
The changes, according to a committee overview, “will significantly reduce unnecessary incarceration for thousands of Californians, reduce racial disparities in criminal sentencing, and save taxpayer dollars better spent on programs proven to improve public safety.”
In December, the committee submitted its second annual report to the Legislature, recommending expanded reentry programs for paroled prisoners and strengthened laws to divert people with mental health concerns into treatment, not prison cells.
“The penal code is like a phone book. It’s so thick and so dense and complicated. I don’t think people understand it very well, in the system and out of the system,” Romano said.
But the current political climate could make such ambitious changes challenging.
A recent increase in retail smash-and-grab crimes and last year’s 31% rise in homicides have left Democratic lawmakers under fire for endorsing more progressive criminal justice policies, though the policies are not clearly connected to current crime trends. Critics point to laws such as Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that lowered certain drug and theft felony offenses to misdemeanors, and Proposition 57, a 2016 initiative to expand parole eligibility, as evidence of California’s missteps.
And they’re taking their frustrations to the ballot box.
In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin faces a June recall election after critics assailed his progressive policies as the wrong approach in light of a recent uptick in crime rates.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has so far avoided a recall election, but his opponents have tried once and are already coordinating another recall attempt. Many of the issues are also likely to surface in the race for state attorney general between incumbent Rob Bonta and Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.
“All we need are these anecdotal stories to scuttle really thoughtful approaches to reforms because we just err on the side of really wanting to be punitive to make a point,” said state Sen. Sydney Kamlager, a Democrat, who served on the committee as an Assembly member before being elected to the Senate in March.
Kamlager wrote the gang enhancement law, which she said has disproportionately locked up people of color. The law that takes effect on Jan. 1 requires prosecutors to prove a crime was committed because of a gang affiliation before adding a sentence enhancement. The bill was one of the most controversial of the 2021 legislative session and passed the Assembly on final approval with no votes to spare.
Despite that battle, and current headlines, Romano remains optimistic.
“California has led the nation in criminal justice reform,” Romano said. “Election after election, there have been reforms to reduce punishment and provide more opportunities for people to get out of jail and prison. At the same time, our crime rates have dropped.”
Robberies fell 13.8% in 2020, according to the California Department of Justice, as did the rape rate, by 8.2%. The total arrest rate also plunged by 17.5%, while the violent crime rate increased by less than 1%.
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