Articles Tagged with misdemeanor

Published on: November 5, 2014

Sweeping Reform to Affect Californians with Theft or Drug Convictions

Californians have just enacted the biggest change to the criminal justice system in a generation. Voters have approved Proposition 47, which will reduce most drug and many theft crimes from felonies to mere misdemeanors. This will reduce or eliminate thousands of jail sentences across the state.

Anyone who is currently serving a prison sentence that qualifies under this reclassification is eligible to petition for a new, lighter sentence, even if currently incarcerated under California’s “three strikes” law. Someone serving a 25-to-life sentence may, for example, be allowed to leave prison now with credit for time that has been served.

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Published on: June 25, 2012

Orange County Jails at the Breaking Point

by Staycie R. Sena

Just two years ago the Orange County criminal inmate population was low enough that Orange County actually closed down a few criminal jail wards. Coincidentally, the State of California decided at that same time, that its prisons were overflowing and it enacted legislation to send a good percentage of state prison criminal inmates back to the counties from which they were sentenced, to be housed by the local jails.

This would be a convenient use of public resources, except that since this “realignment” in October, 2011, Orange County jail populations have increased steadily- mostly through minor DUI and domestic violence arrests.

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