Senator Wiener’s Criminal Justice Reform Legislation to Repeal Unnecessary One-Year Enhancements on Sentences Passes Assembly Committee

June 26, 2019

Sacramento –  Yesterday, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D- San Francisco) legislation to repeal a one-year sentence enhancement that is added to an individual’s base sentence for each prior prison or felony jail term served passed the Assembly Committee on Public Safety with a 6-2 vote. SB 136 now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

The enhancement repealed by this bill impacts about one-third of people serving time in California prisons. Because each year of incarceration costs over $80,000, this enhancement is therefore extremely expensive to taxpayers. The one-year enhancement accomplishes very little, since there are many other enhancements under California law, particularly for violent crime.

Currently, if an individual is convicted of a felony and has served time in jail or prison for a prior felony, a one-year enhancement is added to their sentence even if neither their current nor prior felony is serious or violent. Wide-spread research refutes that these enhancements help to deter individuals from committing future crimes, reduce recidivism, or increase public safety.  Instead, these enhancements put a significant financial burden on taxpayers and families statewide.

The one-year enhancement is also irrational. It only applies if the individual served time in prison or jail for the previous felony. It does not apply if the prior felony resulted in probation only. This distinction makes no sense and exacerbates existing socio-economic and racial inequities in our criminal justice system.  

California has some of the most severe sentence enhancement for prior convictions in the nation. In the California Penal Code, over 100 separate sections enhance sentences based on an individual’s current offense and or record of prior convictions. As of 2016, 79% of people under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) custody had some sort of sentence enhancement attached to their base sentence, and 25% had three or more enhancements stacked on top. SB 136 would amend one of the most commonly used sentencing enhancements, which impacted one-third of individuals convicted in 2017.

“If we are serious about reducing mass incarceration, then we must get rid of these costly and useless sentence enhancements,“ said Senator Wiener. “These antiquated policies cost taxpayers dearly, undermine rehabilitation efforts, and do not make our communities safer. Instead, they lead to California spending more on incarceration than on higher education, overcrowd our prison system, and devastating impacts on communities of color and those impacted by the failed war on drugs. We should stop these botched policies and focus on successful ones.”

According to CDCR, as of December 2018 there were over 15,000 counts of this particular enhancement added to sentences of incarcerated individuals.  This is a conservative estimate, as it does not take into account local county jail sentences impacted by the one-year enhancement.  California currently spends over $80,000 each year to imprison an individual. These sentence enhancements are thus very expensive, harm state and local budgets, and shift dollars away from desperately needed community services.    

“I personally understand the compounding damages and complications that unnecessary sentencing enhancements can cause for individuals trying to get their lives in order,” said Tony Renee, a member of a community-based organization in San Diego, Pillars of the Community. “In 1993, while addicted to drugs and living on the street, I sold fake marijuana to an undercover police officer who had solicited me for the purchase. Due to my history of arrests, and compounding sentencing enhancements, I signed a plea deal for ten-years for this crime. While many defense attorneys implored prosecutors and judges to send me to drug treatment, sentencing enhancements force the justice system to dole out harsh and ineffective punishments.” 

SB 136 does not alter an individual’s base sentence for their current felony charge or amend any other enhancements for violent, repeat offenders.

SB 136 is co-sponsored by the ACLU of California, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Friends Committee on Legislation of California, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Pillars of the Community, and Tides Advocacy. Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) is the principal co-author on the legislation, and it is co-authored by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), and Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), and Shirley Weber (D-San Diego).

Full text of the bill can be found here.

 

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