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APPENDIX B

Summary of Select Criminal Justice Initiatives Impacting the Prison Population and Discretionary Parole in California from 2011 to 2020

2011

  • Criminal Justice Realignment: Realigned the threshold for who is sent to state prison, resulting in offenders convicted of lesser crimes serving their time in local jails rather than state prison; also moved responsibility for adjudicating parole violations from the Board of Parole Hearings (Board) to the courts and mandated that parolees who violate the terms of their parole serve time for their parole violations in local jails rather than being returned to state prison

2012

  • Proposition 36, “A Change in the ‘Three Strikes Law’”: Modified the Three Strikes Law to limit third strikes to serious or violent offenses; inmates sentenced to a third strike for a nonviolent offense could petition the court for resentencing

2014

  • Elderly Parole: Created elderly parole; persons are eligible for a parole hearing after both reaching age 60 and having served 25 years of continuous incarceration; the Board must give special consideration to the impact of advanced age and long term incarceration on the person’s risk to recidivate; implemented by order of the Three Judge Panel in the Plata/Coleman class action law suit
  • Proposition 47, “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act”: Reduced certain drug and theft-related offenses from felonies to misdemeanors; permits persons serving sentences for felony offenses that were reduced to misdemeanors to petition courts for resentencing, and authorizes persons who had completed their sentences for felony convictions that were reduced to misdemeanors to apply to have those convictions reclassified
  • Youth Offender Parole Hearings: Created youth offender hearings; all persons who were under the age of 18 when they committed their controlling offense are eligible for a parole hearing after serving 15, 20, or 25 years, depending on the sentence imposed by the court (i.e., 15 years if determinately sentence, 20 years if sentenced to less than 20 to life; 25 years if sentenced to more than 25 to life); persons sentenced under the Three Strikes Law or to life without the possibility of parole are excluded; the Board must give great weight to the factors of youth as detailed in United States and California Supreme Court case law; enacted by Senate Bill 260, Ch. 312, Statutes of 2014

2015

  • Term Calculations: Eliminated the need for the Board to calculate release dates and instead requires persons who are granted parole to be released once the Board’s decision is final, or once the person has served the minimum sentence imposed by the court, whichever is later; the Board is no longer required to calculate the person’s release date based on a variety of factors such as the number of victims and other factors in mitigation or aggravation of the crime; enacted by Senate Bill 230, Ch. 470, Statutes of 2015

2016

  • Youth Offender Parole Hearings: Extends eligibility for a youth offender parole hearing to persons who committed their controlling offense while under the age of 23; enacted by Senate Bill 261, Ch. 471, Statutes of 2016

2017

  • Proposition 57, “The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016”: Requires judges (rather than prosecutors) to determine whether juvenile offenders charged with certain crimes should be tried as adults; gives the Secretary of Corrections the authority to determine credit earning for all inmates except condemned inmates and inmates sentenced to life without the possibility of parole; creates a process for persons convicted of nonviolent offenses to be considered for parole once they have served the full term of their primary offense, defined as the longest term of imprisonment imposed by the court for any offense, excluding the imposition of an enhancement, consecutive sentence, or alternative sentence
  • Elderly Parole: Codified elderly parole hearings in Penal Code section 3055; persons age 60 and who have served 25 years of continuous incarceration are eligible for parole consideration; persons sentenced under the Three Strikes Law, convicted of first degree murder of a peace officer, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, or condemned are not eligible; enacted by Assembly Bill 1448, Ch. 676, Statutes of 2017

2018

  • Youth Offender Parole Hearings: Extended eligibility for a youth offender parole hearing to persons who committed their controlling offense while under the age of 26; enacted by Assembly Bill 1308, Ch. 675, Statutes of 2018; also extended eligibility for a youth offender parole hearing to persons sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a crime they committed while under the age of 18, once they have served 25 years of incarceration; enacted by Senate Bill 394, Ch. 684, Statutes of 2018
  • Felony-Murder Redefined: Limited application of the felony murder rule to cases where a person directly kills a person in the commission of a felony or an attempted felony, aids and abets the killing, is a major participant in the killing, or when the victim was a peace officer engaged in the performance of his or her duties; inmates previously sentenced under the more expansive prior felony murder rule can petition the court for resentencing; enacted by Senate Bill 1437, Ch. 1015, Statutes of 2018

2020

  • Elderly Parole: Extended eligibility for elderly parole to persons who are age 50 and who have served 20 years of continuous incarceration; persons sentenced under the Three Strikes Law, convicted of first degree murder of a peace officer, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, or condemned are not eligible; enacted by Assembly Bill 3234, Ch. 334, Statutes of 2020
  • Compassionate Release: Establishes the Secretary of Corrections as the sole authority to refer inmates who are terminally ill or permanently incapacitated to the sentencing court for recall of sentence and resentencing; removed the Board’s authority to refer inmates for compassionate release; expanded eligibility for terminally ill inmates from those who have less than six months to live to those who have less than 12 months to live; enacted by Senate Bill 118, Ch. 29, Statutes of 2020
  • Parole Terms: Reduces the length of parole terms for persons released from state prison who are subject to parole supervision by CDCR to two years for determinately-sentenced persons and three years for indeterminately-sentenced persons; requires persons released to parole to be reviewed for discharge from parole after 12 months; discharge is mandatory for determinately-sentenced persons if they have had no parole violations; does not apply to sex offenders; enacted by Senate Bill 118, Ch. 29, Statutes of 2020