Bring Back Balance - Sentencing Reforms Save Money & Improve Realignment

A Fact Sheet from the ACLU of California, Drug Policy Alliance and The Ella Baker Center

It's time to reform California's sentencing laws. Californians are fed up with misguided policies that have packed our prisons & jails, drained our state bud­get and led to one of the highest rates of recidivism in the country.

The recent Plata v. Brown decision from the U.S. Supreme Court requires the Department of Corrections to reduce California's prison population by 33,000. The Governor's realignment plan to move low-risk state prisoners to the county level is a step in the right direction. But if we continue to lock up the same numbers of people for the same length of time, we're just shifting the overcrowding problem to the local level. A recent poll showed a solid majority of likely voters think California imprisons too many people. And 72% support reducing the penalty for possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use with no intent to sell – including 40% who believe this offense should be considered an infraction, with no incarceration at all.

The state wastes hundreds of millions of dollars every year imprisoning people for minor offenses like drug possession and low-level property crimes; money that is desperately needed for education, drug treatment, and social services. And there are enormous human costs as well. Felony convictions bring significant consequences, many lasting a lifetime, including barriers to employment, housing, voting, education, and public benefits.
Two simple sentencing reforms – reducing the penalties for simple drug possession and for low-level property crimes like vandalism or writing a bad check – will begin to bring balance to the system, ensure that the punishment fits the crime and help reduce state prison and county jail overcrowding.

Proposed Reforms

Sentencing Reform #1: Reduce possession of small amounts of drugs to a misdemeanor. Nearly 8,500 people are locked up in CA state prison today serving felony sentences for these offenses at a cost to taxpayers of over $442,000,000 per year, with sentences as long as three years.

Sentencing Reform #2: Make low-level, non-violent property offenses misdemeanors instead of felonies. When charged as a felony, these offenses also carry sentences as long as three years in state prison. Reducing these to misdemeanor sentences would save additional millions of dollars.

Saving Money & Improving Realignment

Governor Brown's proposed realignment plan alone will not solve the fundamental, expensive problem: California locks up too many people who pose very little threat to public safety and keeps them locked up for too long.

Felony sentences cost the public more than misdemeanors regardless of whether those sentences are served in state prisons or in county jails. Felonies mean higher court costs, longer periods of incarceration and more expensive post-release supervision. Reducing low-level drug possession and minor property crimes to misdemeanors today will preserve scarce dollars for education, health care and social services. And these reforms will make implementing the governor's realignment plan more affordable for the counties, freeing up money for rehabilitation, drug treatment, and other proven strategies for reducing crime and improving public safety.

Public Support

A March 2011 poll of 800 California general election voters conducted by Lake Research Partners and commissioned by ACLU of California, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and Drug Policy Alliance shows strong, bipartisan support for sentencing reform.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of California voters support reducing the penalty for possession of a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor, including a solid majority who support this reform strongly.

At a time when California is slashing funding for education and health care while billions of dollars in incarceration costs remain untouched, this poll dramatically demonstrates that Californians believe that too many people are incarcerated for too long.

Key Findings:

• 56% believe that too many people are imprisoned in California.
• 72% favor reducing the penalty for personal drug possession, including majorities of Democrats (79%), independents (72%), and Republicans (66%), as well as majorities of voters in every corner of the state.
• 51% believe that those caught with a small amount of drugs for personal use should spend fewer than 3 months (27%) or no time at all (24%) in jail.
• 41% say they'd be more likely to support a candidate who reduced the penalty to a misdemeanor, compared to 15% who say they'd be less likely.

For More Information

Allen Hopper, ACLU of Northern California (415) 621-2493
Clarissa Woo, ACLU of Southern California (213) 977-9500
Cynthia Buiza, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties (619) 232-2121
Theshia Naidoo, Drug Policy Alliance (510) 229-5214
Kris Lev-Twombly, Ella Baker Center (916) 730-0271