Perspective
May 18, 2016
Harsh sentencing policies are shifting in California
SB 1253, which reduces nonviolent offenders' sentences, seems to allow the governor to dominate the lawmaking process and reduces the Legislature to an advisory role. By Nathan Puri
"Problems I create, I can clean up." - Gov. Jerry Brown.
Nearly 40 years ago, in reaction to the alarming rise of violent and drug crimes in the 1970s, Jerry Brown - also governor of California at the time - transformed the face of American criminal justice. He did so by enacting strict and harsh "determinate sentencing" laws. These laws - which shifted much sentencing authority from judges to lawmakers - established that a pe...
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