Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Californians to vote on major drug sentencing reform on election day

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this Los Angeles Times article, headlined "Prop. 5 would overhaul sentencing of drug offenders," voters in California next month will have a chance to vote on a proposition that would alter the state's drug sentencing laws.  Here are the basics:In a state that has consistently boosted penalties for criminals, packing California's prisons to bursting, sponsors of the far-reaching Proposition 5 are asking voters in November to go in the opposite direction.  The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, funded in part by billionaire George Soros, would be "the most ambitious sentencing and prison reform in U.S. history," according to the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a primary sponsor. By 2010, the measure would commit the state to spending at least $460 million a year, mostly to increase treatment -- and eliminate incarceration -- for those who commit nonviolent crimes involving drugs or fueled by them...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 03, 2008 (boomark / email).