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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 12:03 pm
Time: 12:03 pm
Results for sentencing reform (california)
1 results foundAuthor: Gilhuly, Kim Title: Rehabilitating Corrections in California: The Health Impacts of Proposition 47 Summary: California's sentences for low-level crimes would alleviate prison and jail overcrowding, make communities safer, and strengthen families, and shift resources from imprisoning people to treating them for the addictions and mental health problems at the root of many crimes. A Health Impact Assessment of reforms proposed by a state ballot initiative predicts the changes would reduce crime, recidivism, racial inequities in sentencing, and save the state and its counties $600 million to $900 million a year - but only if treatment and rehabilitation programs are fully funded and implemented properly. Human Impact Partners conducted an in-depth assessment of the public health and equity impacts of reclassifying six non-serious offenses - crimes of drug possession and petty theft - to misdemeanors. The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, Proposition 47 on the November 2014 state ballot, would also allow people currently in prison for those crimes to apply for lower sentences, release, and to have their records cleared of the crime, and redirect savings from the reduction in the prison population to mental health and substance abuse programs, truancy and dropout prevention, and services for victims of violent crime. Fundamentally, prison is not a healthy environment. Every day, conditions in California's dangerously overcrowded prisons and jails causes physical and mental harm - disease, depression, violence, rape, suicide, and more - on thousands of incarcerated men and women. Many of these people were convicted of crimes that pose no serious threat to others, but can be traced to their own substance abuse and mental health problems. They need treatment, not punishment. And treatment is much less costly than punishment, returning $3.77 in benefits for every dollar spent. A shift in how we charge and sentence people who have committed non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual crimes has far-reaching implications for the health and well-being not only of those who commit these offenses, but of their families, their communities, and the public. This Health Impact Assessment predicts that full implementation of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act would: - Decrease state corrections spending by $200 million to $300 million a year, and county corrections spending by $400 million to $600 million a year, according to estimates by the state Legislative Analyst's Office. - Increase state funding for mental health and substance abuse programs, school truancy prevention and victim services by $200 million to $300 million a year. - Reduce the number of people convicted of felonies by more than 40,000 a year, and the number sentenced to prison by more than 3,000 a year. - Allow more than 9,000 people now in prison for felonies for low-level crimes to apply for reduced sentence and release. This includes about 1,500 people who are serving extended sentences for a second strike for one of these low-level offenses. - Reduce violent and property crime by reducing the number of people who re-offend by at least 10% a year among people who participate in treatment programs. - Reduce the rates of incarceration of African- Americans and Hispanics, who are more likely to be sentenced to prison, county jail, or probation as whites for the same low-level crimes. African- Americans are only 7% of California's population but they represent almost one-fourth of prison admissions. Hispanics are arrested and imprisoned at a slightly higher rate than their share of the population, and are 60% more likely to be jailed. Details: Oakland, CA: Human Impact Partners, 2014. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 2, 2014 at: http://www.prop47impacts.org/docs/HIA_Full_Report_92314.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.prop47impacts.org/docs/HIA_Full_Report_92314.pdf Shelf Number: 133539 Keywords: Criminal Justice ReformDrug OffendersMental Health ServivcesMisdemeanorsOffender RehabilitationPetty TheftSentencing Reform (California) |