California Moves To Cap Prison Time For Felons To Stop “Devastation In Communities Of Color”
August 24, 2018 in News by RBN Staff
Source: Eagle Rising
Less time in prison, Mome time on the street to devastate their communities.
California puts more importance on things like what kind of straw people are using than they do on things like murder or rape. Can’t have any actual criminals, or illegals taking up space in our jails.
How long until the “Law of Unintended Consequences” kicks? Liberals never seem to understand the Law of Unintended Consequences. Do they even know it exists?
California’s approach to crime and punishment is complicated enough that a state watchdog agency once referred to it as a “chaotic labyrinth of laws with no cohesive philosophy or strategy.”
The penal code covers thousands of different offenses, each carrying three terms of varying lengths that may be applied depending on mitigating or aggravating circumstances. Convictions for multiple charges can be served concurrently or consecutively, while hundreds of possible enhancements sometimes add more time to an inmate’s sentence than the underlying crime.
Lawmakers are moving to change that this month with Senate Bill 1279, which would largely limit the maximum term of imprisonment for felony convictions to twice the length of the base term. California adopted a similar cap in 1976, according to a legislative analysis, but it was ultimately repealed in 1997, after more and more exceptions were added to the law.
Supporters say SB 1279, which is awaiting a vote in the Assembly after passing the Senate in May, will “refine” California’s complex approach to sentencing, providing a greater balance between felonies and enhancements. Sen. Steven Bradford, a Gardena Democrat who is carrying the measure, said in a written statement that decades of a “tough on crime” mentality devastated communities of color in the state.
“Until we can prove that longer sentences are an effective deterrent to crime and increase public safety, there is absolutely no reason we should dole out extreme and harsh sentences for all cases, which research has widely proven to disproportionately impact black and brown people,” he said. More
Didn’t California also raise the dollar threshold for misdemeanors to become felony crimes? Resulting in almost no prosecutions anymore under the new threshold?
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